Sustainable Aviation Growth?
EurActiv is carrying a story today about plans from the IATA to achieve what it calls “carbon neutral growth” by 2020. Now I’m not one to draw the line at co-operating with industries in enacting measures to tackle climate change, and I also don’t think that we can do without the aviation industry (though its present form leaves much to be desired), but this ‘commitment’ from the IATA seems to be missing the point just a tiny bit. Even if all aircraft were to use 100% biofuels, it would not be possible to attain sustainable growth. Certainly the problem of burning up finite resources would be largely removed, but biofuels have to be produced from something, whether it be sugar beet or some other crop. It seems so blindingly obvious that the more biofuels you need, the more of these crops will need to be produced: the danger of vast monocultures of a small set of crops being established to feed the demand for aviation fuels—not to mention all the other things which biofuels are being hailed as the saviour of—is significant here.
Also, can anyone decipher the following quote from the IATA’s press release? I’m sure it means something, but what that might be is escaping me just now.
“Airlines should get carbon credits for every cent we pay, whether in taxes, charges or ETS payments. And we should pay only once, not several times” said Bisignani.