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Aviation leaders have taken a proactive role in looking at ways of mitigating their environmental impact according to a recent report from wired magazine
The 11-point plan laid out in "Aviation and Climate Change: The Views of Aviation Industry Stakeholders" (.pdf) was developed by some of the industry's leading trade groups and addresses everything from general aviation and commercial carriers to aircraft manufacturers. It outlines a broad principles for the industry and policymakers to adhere to as they grapple with climate change, and makes it clear the industry wants to be more involved in the discussion -- and solution.
This is an interesting development because it places the aviation industry in a pro-active postion when it comes to climate change and the impact this industry has on the environment.
Although the devil is in the details:
A lot of the text is pretty straightforward (or 'boilerplate') and they talk about items such as a "comprehensive energy policy" - which provides either little information and even less confidence. Additionally there are attempts within the document to position ecological regulation in direct opposition to jobs by stating that "potential benefits of regulation should be weighed against the cost to the economy, jobs, communities, and the transportation system"
There are, however a number of rays of light emanating from this document in the form of proposals to overhaul ATC systems to reduce aircraft holding times, or adopting operation efficiencies such as continuous decent approaches which reduce fuel consumption.
Overall the document is welcome change of direction for the aviation industry which has -up until now - tried to distance itself from it's environmental impact with claims that aviation emmissions account for 'just 2%' of the global CO2 fallout globally.
Although I suspect the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen in December has served it's purpose of focusing the minds of aviation bigwigs.
The 11-point plan laid out in "Aviation and Climate Change: The Views of Aviation Industry Stakeholders" (.pdf) was developed by some of the industry's leading trade groups and addresses everything from general aviation and commercial carriers to aircraft manufacturers. It outlines a broad principles for the industry and policymakers to adhere to as they grapple with climate change, and makes it clear the industry wants to be more involved in the discussion -- and solution.
This is an interesting development because it places the aviation industry in a pro-active postion when it comes to climate change and the impact this industry has on the environment.
Although the devil is in the details:
A lot of the text is pretty straightforward (or 'boilerplate') and they talk about items such as a "comprehensive energy policy" - which provides either little information and even less confidence. Additionally there are attempts within the document to position ecological regulation in direct opposition to jobs by stating that "potential benefits of regulation should be weighed against the cost to the economy, jobs, communities, and the transportation system"
There are, however a number of rays of light emanating from this document in the form of proposals to overhaul ATC systems to reduce aircraft holding times, or adopting operation efficiencies such as continuous decent approaches which reduce fuel consumption.
Overall the document is welcome change of direction for the aviation industry which has -up until now - tried to distance itself from it's environmental impact with claims that aviation emmissions account for 'just 2%' of the global CO2 fallout globally.
Although I suspect the upcoming United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Copenhagen in December has served it's purpose of focusing the minds of aviation bigwigs.
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