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Traveling halfway across the globe to reach a holiday destination is no longer an inaccessible dream.

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Flying off for a weekend in the sun is no more a jet-set luxury.

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As a result, air traffic has risen sharply in recent years,

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and the impact of aviation on climate change is causing increasing concern.

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Within the European Union, aviation is currently responsible for around 3% of greenhouse gases, such as CO2.

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But this figure could well explode given the strength of demand.

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The volume is increasing by 5 or 6% a year.

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Well, the aviation sector is getting a bit more efficient, but not more than 1% a year or so.

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So that means that the emissions are rising by 4 to 5% year on year.

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And that is what we are seeing right now.

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And if year on year you have 4 to 5% growth of emissions, that means in 15 years a doubling.

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The figures speak for themselves.

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For the European Commission, it's urgent to act, since aviation, unlike other means of transport, is not taxed on fuel.

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So there's little incentive for it to cut its CO2 emissions.

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While in the industrial sector we reduce emissions with 15 to 25% between 1990 and 2004,

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the emissions from aviation have been growing with more than 80%.

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We have been successful in reducing the emissions in the normal industrial installations,

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in the power sector, in the steel sector, in the pulp and paper sector, etc.

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So we cannot continue to be successful in one sector,

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and to neutralize that positive result by developments in other sectors.

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And aviation is one of the most striking examples.

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The European Commissioner for the Environment wants to see aviation take on its share of the effort to combat climate change.

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The Commission is therefore proposing to include air transport in the CO2 emissions trading scheme

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the European Union has pioneered as a means of meeting the Kyoto Protocol objectives.

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In order to tackle this problem in the most cost-efficient way,

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we need to include aviation emissions into our highly successful emissions trading scheme.

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And this will lay also the basis for a global system

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which will be the answer to the climate change problem in the long run.

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What will this mean in practice, and what will change for air carriers?

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At the moment the scheme covers a limited number of activities such as energy production,

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iron and steel and the paper, cement, petroleum, glass and ceramics industries.

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Member states set a limit on the maximum quantity of CO2 their companies can emit.

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This quantity is deliberately set below the level businesses really need.

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To make up the difference, companies have a choice.

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Use cleaner technologies that emit less,

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or buy extra allowances placed on the market by a company not needing its full share.

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What counts is that the ceiling on total emissions can't be exceeded.

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The higher the demand for allowances, the higher their price on the market,

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and the more it becomes comparatively attractive to invest in clean technologies.

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In future the aviation sector will be part of this system.

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Each airline operating flights to or from a European airport

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will be given an emissions allowance based on its past volume of activity.

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To operate more flights, the only alternatives will be to pollute less,

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or to buy extra allowances on the market.

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How are the parties concerned reacting?

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What about the low price airlines for example,

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for which the cost could be proportionally higher compared to ticket prices?

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Apparently a CO2 emission allowance is considered preferable to a tax on jet fuel.

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I think the simplest thing to do and the most intelligent thing to do

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is to bring aviation into the existing emission trading system.

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That puts aviation, quite rightly, on the same footing as other carbon emitting industries.

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The reasons why we like it are that it's an international solution to an international problem.

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Aviation is a highly international industry.

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Secondly, it encourages the efficient airlines and penalises the inefficient airlines.

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The European Commission sees the emissions trading scheme

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as the most cost effective way to control aviation emissions,

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less expensive than a tax on fuel for instance.

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Being in the scheme will push the aviation sector into a new way of thinking

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that gives as much attention to its environmental performance as to its economic efficiency.

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We have modern aircraft, we fly those aircraft full of people,

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so it's the same factors that drive economic efficiency

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which also make us environmentally efficient.

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For travellers, the measure is likely to have only a modest impact on ticket prices.

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On a typical European flight, we think that the impact on the price of a flight will be very limited,

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something between 2 and 10 euros, not more.

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To stay within their emissions allowances,

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the airlines will have to fill up their planes more completely,

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but they'll also have to invest in increasingly clean aircraft.

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What can they hope for in that respect?

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Amsterdam with its canals, its bicycles, and its aerospace laboratory.

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This is where a good many of the aerospace technologies of the future are developed.

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Reducing the fuel consumption of aircraft, their emissions,

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and their impact on climate is a priority for researchers today.

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Among other things, they'll also have to invest in more clean aircraft.

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Among other things, they're studying the concept of intelligent wings.

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For example, if you look to the birds, how they do it,

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they move and constantly adapt their wings.

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That's something which we might be able to do in the near future on aircraft.

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We're thinking about small devices at the trailing edge of the wing

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which constantly adapt the camber of the wing surface

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to unload the wing when necessary during turbulence flight and during manoeuvring,

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whereby with very small devices you can interact with the aerodynamics.

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The aircraft of the future will be very much like those we know today,

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but will be fitted with microsystems to improve their aerodynamics.

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Likewise, composite materials will make for lighter and lighter aircraft,

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directly helping to reduce fuel consumption.

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It's basically small numbers, but it's many small numbers.

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There are many areas where you can save half a percent, one percent,

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but if you all add them together, then it's quite considerable.

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It might easily be ten, twenty percent in the end.

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Engines are also becoming more efficient, one percent a year.

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On the whole, the aviation industry is therefore expected to meet the objectives

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set by the Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe.

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A 30 percent increase in the energy efficiency of new aircraft by 2020.

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The aircraft themselves are not the only aspect of the problem, however.

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One might think they fly in a straight line.

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Not at all.

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Air corridors oblige aircraft to take numerous detours,

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thus consuming that much more fuel.

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Obviously, better air traffic management is needed.

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And what about the planes forced to circle around congested airports before landing?

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The reason you have delays is because there is no air traffic control.

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The reason you have delays is because there is not enough runway capacity.

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If there was adequate runway capacity, you would not need to have this holding in the air.

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I mean, you would just land straight away.

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So, the answer actually is twofold.

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It's better airspace management and having more runway capacity throughout Europe.

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It's estimated that better traffic management at airports and in the air

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would result in fuel savings of 12 percent for airlines.

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There is a big European project called CESAR,

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which is looking at improving airspace efficiency throughout Europe over the next 10 years.

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It's about having less fragmented airspace,

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about managing airspace in a much more joined-up way,

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so that routings are more direct.

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And yes, there will be use of new technology,

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but there's a lot of quite sophisticated air navigation equipment on aircraft.

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In Amsterdam, for example, researchers are developing in this simulator

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new procedures for safer circulation of aircraft,

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and especially for minimizing pollution,

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from the point of departure to the point of destination.

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This is the gate-to-gate concept.

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The basic concept is to reduce the amount of time the engine is running.

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What you can do is make sure that the aircraft will only start its engines

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once it has been assured that the aircraft can move over the airport

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and to the runway without any delays at ground,

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and can take off without any delays,

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and also can do the full flight without any delays in between.

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Bringing the aviation sector into Europe's emissions trading scheme

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is expected to lead to big savings in CO2 emissions from aircraft.

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By 2020, these savings could be 180 million tons annually,

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twice the level of greenhouse gases Austria emits each year.

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With this measure, Europe is taking another vital step

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towards preventing a global climate disaster.