At the “Freighters” conference in Geneva last month, which was organised by our colleagues of Air Cargo News, plenty of time was devoted to a discussion about the implications of carbon-dioxide emissions by aircraft and the fact that the airline industry has become the whipping boy for environmentalists who claim that aviation emissions signifi cantlycontribute to climate change.
Never mind that airlines contribute just 2 per cent to the world’s carbon- dioxide emissions, the industry has become an attractive target for politicians who fi nd it easier to target airlines rather than, say, large industrial complexes which are the main polluting culprits.
Delegates at the “Freighters” conference acknowledged, like yours truly, that the airline industry should do its utmost to reduce the emissions, but at the same time agreed that politicians and the media should focus on the real polluters.
The issue of emissions is a hot topic in Europe, but less so in the US, where the Bush administration has created the perception that it doesn’t care about climate change and instead is focusing on research into alternative fuels.
Meanwhile, analysts say that Europeans are not likely to fl y less and will probably fl y more in the coming years, while industry groups point out that over time, advances in technology will lessen aviation’s already small impact on Earth’s climate.