Climate Change Committee warns on aviation
September 15, 2009
The Government’s official advisors on climate matters, the Climate Change Committee, has warned that, in order for the aviation sector to continue to expand, the UK might have to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 90% against 1990 levels, by 2050. This represents a sizeable increase over the 80% objective already envisaged for 2050.
The Committee was requested to provide the Government with advice on what ought to be done about the problem of aviation emissions. In addition to giving the above warning, the Committee is also recommending that global aviation emissions be capped in the forthcoming climate change talks in Copenhagen. As far as the Committee’s Chief Executive, David Kennedy, is concerned, it is crucial that such a cap be part of any Copenhagen agreement.
In a letter to the Transport and Climate Change Secretaries, the Committee stated that the aviation industry would need to reduce aircraft emissions to a figure equivalent to their 2005 level by 2050. Even so, this is much less stringent than the target for the UK as a whole of an 80% reduction against 1990 levels. Should aviation fail to play its part, however, it could mean that the rest of the UK economy will have to increase its reduction target to 90%.
A 90% reduction objective would prove sufficiently difficult — so much so, that a number of analysts are convinced that it might be easier for some sectors to take the plunge and adopt a zero carbon emissions approach rather than trying to whittle down the emissions gently over the next few decades.
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