The environmentalists that called on the governments are BAA Stansted’s head of environment Dr. Andy Jefferson,

via radziun

Emirates divisional senior vice-president commercial operations worldwide Richard Vaughan and Manchester Metropolitan University’s professor of sustainable aviation Dr. Callum Thomas. The expressed their concern about these funds in a World Travel Market seminar.

“The UK Airport Operators Association did a paper last week on the APD and its impact. It showed tax recovered from APD was £806 million in 2001/2 and in 2007/8 it was £1.99 billion. My concern is that this money is going into lots of different government pots – the banks too probably – and not being put back into helping the aviation industry find a solution to the Co2 emissions crisis,” said Jefferson.

Vaughan also mentioned he knows some money are invested in looking for greener solutions, but there are also many funds that go elsewhere.

“Globally, governments are aiming to reduce Co2 emissions by 50% and in developed economies those governments need to reduce emissions by 80%. And all the time emissions are going up as we struggle to find a solution. We are simply not developing the technology fast enough to offset our emissions right now. Our governments need to reinvest all the emission tax money they are getting into finding a solution,”

How do you see the future for green travel?

The company thinks that using the toilet before boarding means lighter passengers (with an empty bladder) thus an lighter aircraft, which doesn’t use as much fuel as it would normally do.

The strategy is to position ANA staff near the boarding gates and ask passengers that are waiting their flight to visit the lavatory before boarding the airplane. The company hopes it will reduce their carbon emissions by five tonnes over the course of one month.

This measure was started on the 1st of October as a test lasting one month (42 flights). If the passengers’ response is positive and if their calculations are correct, the test may be expanded.

An aircraft is one of the biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions. The airline industry is responsible for over 600 million tons of the greenhouse gas per year. A regular flight from London to NY sends into the atmosphere an amazing 1.35 tons of CO2 per passenger. (via The Telegraph)