UK to airlines: It’s now your turn
A British Government minister, Environment Minister Ian Pearson, has launched a scathing attack on the airline industry for their intense lobbying against carbon emission caps being placed on airlines, according to a report in today’s Guardian. The main targets of the Minister’s attack are the Irish budget airline Ryanair, Lufthansa, and several major American airlines. Fighting the inevitable is surely not in the best interests of the shareholders of these companies, so one wonders why their managements persist in opposing emissions caps so vociferously.
As a matter of public policy, it is grossly unfair that airlines should avoid having to reduce emissions when other companies are not so fortunate. We agree fully with the Minister when he says:
“Like every other industry, the airline industry has to got to take its share of responsibility for combating climate change and the European Union’s proposals is the vehicle by which they can do just that.”
UPDATE (2007-01-06): Ryanair CEO, Michael O’Leary, yesterday reacted strongly to the criticism made by Minister Pearson, as did, according to this FT report, the Minister’s own cabinet colleagues. Let us hope the Minister is not cowed by this reaction. The airlines need to be included in the carbon ETS, for reasons of fairness to other industries, to send the right signals across the whole economy (not just to part of it), and as a prelude to cap-and-trade regulations for the other gases which aircraft emit.