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Flying and the environment -- the EU leads the way

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Subido el 19 de septiembre de 2007 por EducaMadrid

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Flying is something we take for granted but all those business trips and holidays are contributing to global warming. This film looks at the new laws being put forward by the EU to cut the amount of CO2 produced by air travel and hears what scientists and those involved in the flying business have to say.

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Traveling halfway across the globe to reach a holiday destination is no longer an inaccessible dream. 00:00:00
Flying off for a weekend in the sun is no more a jet-set luxury. 00:00:07
As a result, air traffic has risen sharply in recent years, 00:00:11
and the impact of aviation on climate change is causing increasing concern. 00:00:15
Within the European Union, aviation is currently responsible for around 3% of greenhouse gases, such as CO2. 00:00:21
But this figure could well explode given the strength of demand. 00:00:28
The volume is increasing by 5 or 6% a year. 00:00:32
Well, the aviation sector is getting a bit more efficient, but not more than 1% a year or so. 00:00:35
So that means that the emissions are rising by 4 to 5% year on year. 00:00:41
And that is what we are seeing right now. 00:00:46
And if year on year you have 4 to 5% growth of emissions, that means in 15 years a doubling. 00:00:48
The figures speak for themselves. 00:00:56
For the European Commission, it's urgent to act, since aviation, unlike other means of transport, is not taxed on fuel. 00:00:58
So there's little incentive for it to cut its CO2 emissions. 00:01:07
While in the industrial sector we reduce emissions with 15 to 25% between 1990 and 2004, 00:01:13
the emissions from aviation have been growing with more than 80%. 00:01:21
We have been successful in reducing the emissions in the normal industrial installations, 00:01:27
in the power sector, in the steel sector, in the pulp and paper sector, etc. 00:01:33
So we cannot continue to be successful in one sector, 00:01:37
and to neutralize that positive result by developments in other sectors. 00:01:40
And aviation is one of the most striking examples. 00:01:45
The European Commissioner for the Environment wants to see aviation take on its share of the effort to combat climate change. 00:01:48
The Commission is therefore proposing to include air transport in the CO2 emissions trading scheme 00:01:55
the European Union has pioneered as a means of meeting the Kyoto Protocol objectives. 00:02:00
In order to tackle this problem in the most cost-efficient way, 00:02:06
we need to include aviation emissions into our highly successful emissions trading scheme. 00:02:12
And this will lay also the basis for a global system 00:02:20
which will be the answer to the climate change problem in the long run. 00:02:25
What will this mean in practice, and what will change for air carriers? 00:02:33
At the moment the scheme covers a limited number of activities such as energy production, 00:02:41
iron and steel and the paper, cement, petroleum, glass and ceramics industries. 00:02:46
Member states set a limit on the maximum quantity of CO2 their companies can emit. 00:02:54
This quantity is deliberately set below the level businesses really need. 00:03:02
To make up the difference, companies have a choice. 00:03:07
Use cleaner technologies that emit less, 00:03:12
or buy extra allowances placed on the market by a company not needing its full share. 00:03:15
What counts is that the ceiling on total emissions can't be exceeded. 00:03:22
The higher the demand for allowances, the higher their price on the market, 00:03:28
and the more it becomes comparatively attractive to invest in clean technologies. 00:03:32
In future the aviation sector will be part of this system. 00:03:40
Each airline operating flights to or from a European airport 00:03:44
will be given an emissions allowance based on its past volume of activity. 00:03:48
To operate more flights, the only alternatives will be to pollute less, 00:03:53
or to buy extra allowances on the market. 00:03:58
How are the parties concerned reacting? 00:04:02
What about the low price airlines for example, 00:04:05
for which the cost could be proportionally higher compared to ticket prices? 00:04:08
Apparently a CO2 emission allowance is considered preferable to a tax on jet fuel. 00:04:14
I think the simplest thing to do and the most intelligent thing to do 00:04:21
is to bring aviation into the existing emission trading system. 00:04:24
That puts aviation, quite rightly, on the same footing as other carbon emitting industries. 00:04:28
The reasons why we like it are that it's an international solution to an international problem. 00:04:34
Aviation is a highly international industry. 00:04:40
Secondly, it encourages the efficient airlines and penalises the inefficient airlines. 00:04:43
The European Commission sees the emissions trading scheme 00:04:51
as the most cost effective way to control aviation emissions, 00:04:53
less expensive than a tax on fuel for instance. 00:04:56
Being in the scheme will push the aviation sector into a new way of thinking 00:04:59
that gives as much attention to its environmental performance as to its economic efficiency. 00:05:03
We have modern aircraft, we fly those aircraft full of people, 00:05:09
so it's the same factors that drive economic efficiency 00:05:12
which also make us environmentally efficient. 00:05:16
For travellers, the measure is likely to have only a modest impact on ticket prices. 00:05:20
On a typical European flight, we think that the impact on the price of a flight will be very limited, 00:05:27
something between 2 and 10 euros, not more. 00:05:33
To stay within their emissions allowances, 00:05:38
the airlines will have to fill up their planes more completely, 00:05:40
but they'll also have to invest in increasingly clean aircraft. 00:05:43
What can they hope for in that respect? 00:05:46
Amsterdam with its canals, its bicycles, and its aerospace laboratory. 00:05:50
This is where a good many of the aerospace technologies of the future are developed. 00:05:57
Reducing the fuel consumption of aircraft, their emissions, 00:06:02
and their impact on climate is a priority for researchers today. 00:06:05
Among other things, they'll also have to invest in more clean aircraft. 00:06:10
Among other things, they're studying the concept of intelligent wings. 00:06:15
For example, if you look to the birds, how they do it, 00:06:19
they move and constantly adapt their wings. 00:06:21
That's something which we might be able to do in the near future on aircraft. 00:06:24
We're thinking about small devices at the trailing edge of the wing 00:06:28
which constantly adapt the camber of the wing surface 00:06:33
to unload the wing when necessary during turbulence flight and during manoeuvring, 00:06:37
whereby with very small devices you can interact with the aerodynamics. 00:06:42
The aircraft of the future will be very much like those we know today, 00:06:49
but will be fitted with microsystems to improve their aerodynamics. 00:06:52
Likewise, composite materials will make for lighter and lighter aircraft, 00:06:58
directly helping to reduce fuel consumption. 00:07:02
It's basically small numbers, but it's many small numbers. 00:07:05
There are many areas where you can save half a percent, one percent, 00:07:08
but if you all add them together, then it's quite considerable. 00:07:11
It might easily be ten, twenty percent in the end. 00:07:14
Engines are also becoming more efficient, one percent a year. 00:07:19
On the whole, the aviation industry is therefore expected to meet the objectives 00:07:23
set by the Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe. 00:07:26
A 30 percent increase in the energy efficiency of new aircraft by 2020. 00:07:31
The aircraft themselves are not the only aspect of the problem, however. 00:07:36
One might think they fly in a straight line. 00:07:41
Not at all. 00:07:43
Air corridors oblige aircraft to take numerous detours, 00:07:44
thus consuming that much more fuel. 00:07:47
Obviously, better air traffic management is needed. 00:07:49
And what about the planes forced to circle around congested airports before landing? 00:07:53
The reason you have delays is because there is no air traffic control. 00:08:00
The reason you have delays is because there is not enough runway capacity. 00:08:03
If there was adequate runway capacity, you would not need to have this holding in the air. 00:08:07
I mean, you would just land straight away. 00:08:11
So, the answer actually is twofold. 00:08:13
It's better airspace management and having more runway capacity throughout Europe. 00:08:15
It's estimated that better traffic management at airports and in the air 00:08:21
would result in fuel savings of 12 percent for airlines. 00:08:24
There is a big European project called CESAR, 00:08:29
which is looking at improving airspace efficiency throughout Europe over the next 10 years. 00:08:32
It's about having less fragmented airspace, 00:08:39
about managing airspace in a much more joined-up way, 00:08:42
so that routings are more direct. 00:08:46
And yes, there will be use of new technology, 00:08:48
but there's a lot of quite sophisticated air navigation equipment on aircraft. 00:08:51
In Amsterdam, for example, researchers are developing in this simulator 00:08:56
new procedures for safer circulation of aircraft, 00:09:00
and especially for minimizing pollution, 00:09:03
from the point of departure to the point of destination. 00:09:06
This is the gate-to-gate concept. 00:09:09
The basic concept is to reduce the amount of time the engine is running. 00:09:11
What you can do is make sure that the aircraft will only start its engines 00:09:16
once it has been assured that the aircraft can move over the airport 00:09:22
and to the runway without any delays at ground, 00:09:28
and can take off without any delays, 00:09:32
and also can do the full flight without any delays in between. 00:09:35
Bringing the aviation sector into Europe's emissions trading scheme 00:09:40
is expected to lead to big savings in CO2 emissions from aircraft. 00:09:43
By 2020, these savings could be 180 million tons annually, 00:09:48
twice the level of greenhouse gases Austria emits each year. 00:09:52
With this measure, Europe is taking another vital step 00:09:55
towards preventing a global climate disaster. 00:09:58
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Idioma/s:
en
Niveles educativos:
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      • Nivel Intermedio
Autor/es:
The European Union
Subido por:
EducaMadrid
Licencia:
Reconocimiento - No comercial - Sin obra derivada
Visualizaciones:
691
Fecha:
19 de septiembre de 2007 - 10:53
Visibilidad:
Público
Enlace Relacionado:
European Commission
Duración:
10′ 03″
Relación de aspecto:
4:3 Hasta 2009 fue el estándar utilizado en la televisión PAL; muchas pantallas de ordenador y televisores usan este estándar, erróneamente llamado cuadrado, cuando en la realidad es rectangular o wide.
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