Global airlines nudge towards carbon emissions trading
In 2012 European airlines are scheduled to be included in the carbon emissions trading scheme for the first time. Aviation is a industry responsible for 650 million tonnes of CO2 annually - around two percent of global greenhouse gas pollution but this share is expected to rise in the years ahead and the industry has been under sustained pressure from stakeholders including the EU Commission and green pressure groups to do something to tackle carbon emissions.
The airlines have complained about being included in the EU scheme - they complain that participation will damage their competitiveness during a difficult time for airline businesses. Swiss International Airlines chief executive Christoph Franz has argued that including airlines in the EU-ETS could actually lead to more greenhouse gas emissions as airlines sought to fly around EU airspace.
But without signs of an active commitment to reducing their emissions, the industry may well find that it is subject to even tougher regulation in the years ahead and/or a specific pollution tax on aviation fuel as a means of ‘making the polluter pay’.
This week four of the world’s biggest airlines have supported a global scheme to curb carbon emissions - they are Air France/KLM, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic together with the under-fire airport operator BAA.
The Aviation Global Deal Group is pushing for a global cap on aviation emissions to take effect in 2013 when the new climate deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol must be in place. A UN body would be charged with auctioning the C02 allowances with some of the revenue earmarked for financing lower carbon investments in developing countries and some to help fund development of sustainable second-generation biofuels for use in aviation.
Watch this airspace .... this is a really important aspect of the climate change policy domain within the European Union.
The Costs of Cutting Carbon
Susan Watts from Newsnight has this excellent short video on some of the findings of the Committee for Climate Change and some of the costs and benefits of meeting stringent carbon reduction targets.
Last week the Financial Times ran a special feature on Climate Change and Business. Their climate change series is available here.
Back to the cave or a brave new world?
I popped over to a meeting of Eton’s Geography Society tonight to hear a talk from Mike Mason, the climate change entrepreneur and founder of Climate Care the carbon offsetting business which has recently been swallowed up by JP Morgan Chase to form part of their JPMorgan’s Environmental Markets group.
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Windfall gains for the biggest polluters
The Guardian has been critical of the EU carbon trading system in the past and a new report available here claims that some of Britain’s biggest polluters are set to reap a windfall gain because of an over-allocation of C02 permits in the first phase of the EU-ETS. The early fault-lines in the EU_ETS system are tantamount to government failure. The Guardian’s special reports on emissions trading provide a good point of reference for students and teachers.
Drax feels the heat of rising carbon prices
It is impossible to miss - the giant Drax coal-fired power station that straddles the A1 near Ferrybridge in Yorkshire and dominates the landscape for miles around is the largest in Western Europe and supplies about 7 per cent of the UK’s electricity. Of course generating electricity from coal necessitates plenty of carbon emissions - figures show that every six months Drax creates nearly 10 million tonnes of CO2 and, under the terms of the EU’s carbon trading scheme, it must not only pay for coal but also purchase emission allowances.
It has just announced that the combined cost of coal and CO2 permits has nearly doubled over the last year from £222m to £413m.
read more...»Oil sands - an enviromental catastrophe?
“The Caterpillar 797B heavy hauler is the world’s biggest truck. It’s taller than a four-storey house, as wide as a tennis court and it removes nearly 35,000 tonnes of oily sand a day from a deep open cast mine in northern Alberta in western Canada.”
John Vidal heads to Canada to ask some tough questions of the oil industry and its intentions in northern Alberta in this Guardian video report. This video is backed up by this report. Some of the photos of the plant and equipment being used are truly stunning - I will certainly be using this when I teach about economies of scale next autumn. The size of the oil sands exploration is astounding and the economic boom hitting this northern wilderness in places such as Fort McMurray beggars belief. But so too are the environmental consequences of this black gold rush
“The downside is ecological devastation and soaring greenhouse gas emissions on a scale that is beginning to alarm Canadians and other western countries trying to reduce the intensity of their carbon economies to counter climate change. Canada, alone, of developed countries, is expecting to increase emissions for 30 years and ignore its commitments to Kyoto.”
Peter Day looked at this issue a couple of years ago and his In Business report is still available on the BBC web site
Image from creative commons licence on Flickr.com
EU airlines to be included in emissions trading
Airlines will be included in the EU carbon emissions trading scheme and this BBC video provides a good introduction to the issue. All airlines flying into and out of the EU, including non-European carriers, will be included as part of the Emission Trading Scheme, and would have to pay for 15 per cent of their emissions permits from 2012. Will the Americans be persuaded to move towards a global agreement on aviation emissions? How will demand be affected by the expected Euro 2 to Euro 9 increase in the price per passenger for short haul flights?
Good background information is available here from the EurActive website. And here is coverage and comment on the issue from the Guardian.
Carbon trading for down under?
The Australians may be making headway towards their own carbon emissions trading scheme with the publication of a new report from economist Ross Garnaut. Here is the link to the Garnaut Report web site. And this BBC news video provides coverage from the world’s driest continent.
Stern warns that cost of tackling climate change has doubled
Nick Stern - perhaps the most famous economist alive in the world today? His talk at the RES Annual Lecture in November 2007 was one of the highlights of my year and no doubt his diary is full for the enxt couple of years at least! Lord Stern of Brentford is quoted as saying that the cost of tackling climate change has increased significantly since the publication of the Stern Report in October 2006. Speaking at the launch of the Carbon Ratings Agency he is quoted in the Guardian as saying that said evidence that climate change was happening faster than had been previously thought meant that emissions needed to be reduced even more sharply. The rest of the Guardian article is here.
Weigh less - pay less
More than one student has asked me in the past why airlines so not link some of the cost of a ticket to the actual weight of the customer? After heavier passengers might be expected to have a detrimental effect on fuel economy and perhaps on the volume of carbon emissions?
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