It is very concerning that United States airlines are actively opposing the efforts of those who monitor the environmental damage due to aeroplane pollution. Recently it was explored that the meeting between US officials was a meeting with the European Commission. The conversation between them was secretly hidden. There is no official record of this meeting. So this move raises serious concerns.
During this meeting, Airlines for America argued against including flights outside Europe in new pollution reporting rules. They claimed there’s still uncertainty about the science behind contrails, those white lines planes leave in the sky that can trap heat. They are also worried that due to this rule, the price of tickets getting higher will limit the number of travellers.
It seems that the main purpose of these airlines is to protect their profits rather than address the urgent complexities of climate change. It is important to find every possible solution to these climate problems instead of finding excuses to avoid responsibility.
The long-haul flights are the basic reasons for climate damage and the US airlines are trying to avoid their responsibilities. Lucca Ewbank from InfluenceMap reported that non-CO2 emissions from planes could be responsible for up to two-thirds of the climate impact of flying. Despite this fact, airlines are lobbying against these measured figures in order to hide the damage.
Different gasses are emitted by the aeroplane engines. It includes nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide. These emitted gasses caused the planet to warm up even though scientists are still doing research on it to find the exact effects. The new rule of European Comiosns has plans to close the knowledge gap. This can be done by making an airline’s track and emission report under these new rules. Climate scientists are clearly opposed to these new regulations and say that science is not ready to accept them. They also said that focusing on the issue and suggesting a solution is also the top priority for them.
This proposal has split the aviation industry. US airlines oppose including international flights in these rules, while European budget airlines argue that excluding long-haul flights would be unfair and possibly illegal.
The International Air Transport Association(IATA) also stands in favour of the United States’ view. According to them, it is not good to expand the European rules including flight outside Europe. This can cause international issues and also create many doubts. Such as it is a great hurdle in the scientific process to track the non-CO2 emissions.
At the same time, Ewbank noted that IATA and Airlines for America are strangely using scientific uncertainty to argue against a policy meant to reduce that uncertainty.
However many from the aviation industry strongly disagree with it. There’s a split between some international associations resisting change and European Union low-cost carriers that favours it.
Current technology can not make aviation green.
Aviation is hard to make green with current technology. According to researchers, the best step is to reduce the flight demand. And raising tickets can greatly assist with it. Some other solutions are also implementing higher taxes on frequent flyers, and ending subsidies for the aviation sector.
By 2028, new rules might be proposed including non-CO2 emissions costs in the EU emissions trading scheme.
One of the researchers from Lund University, Stefan Gossling also said that United state airlines has always become the hurdle in environmental rules, especially in places like the European Union. According to him, this is due to the fact that their business model relies on a very minor profit margin and constant growth. They always refuse to accept more beneficial ways to handle air travel. The meeting of these notes also explored some parts of their talks. Airlines for America, Penta, and major US airlines like United, FedEx, and Delta were part of this conversation. It clearly represents that not every person in the industry wants to accept these new rules.
There is no response to the requests for comment from Delta and Penta. United and FedEx pointed to Airlines for America, which said it regularly meets with EU counterparts and follows all rules. The European Commission mentioned that in order to get various opinions, there are many meetings with different stakeholders. They also shed light on their decision and said it would be in favour of Europe. However, they got strong criticism from IATA, which was not present at the meeting. This opposition is due to moving forward too quickly on such an important issue without fully understanding all aspects.
