Greening of travel. Progress.
FOXTROTS
Fox – sly. Trots – left-leaning (Trotsky) plus its more insalubrious meaning. Foxtrots – leading the industry in a dance.
2008 February 27
Greening of travel. Progress.
- B747-lite.
Air New Zealand, Boeing, and Rolls-Royce plan a B747-400 biofuel demonstration flight in the second half of the year. The idea is to speed the development of viable and sustainable alternative fuels for commercial aviation.
The flight, probably from Auckland and without passengers, will have only one engine running on a blended bio fuel/kerosene mix. The other three will be powered by regular fuel.
- ACTE (Association of Corporate Travel Executives) is matching IATA with its probably-doomed drive to stop governments introducing so-called ‘green taxes’.
“None of the money from ‘green taxes’ has been reinvested in infrastructure and the travel industry is being targeted,” says ACTE. We did not know that but are ready to believe it.
ACTE plans some specific moves to counter this trend – to be announced before year-end. This may be endorsing certain environmentally-sensitive hotels and airlines such as Virgin Atlantic and Air New Zealand, which have been vocal about biofuels.
“Weak air traffic control systems are taxing people for the privilege of flying around in circles,” it adds.
- AEA (Association of European Airlines), has attacked the Netherlands’ decision to impose a travel tax on air passengers – US$16 (at US$1 to €0.70) for intra-Europe flights and a hefty US$64 for intercontinental.
The measure is expected to raise around US$500mn annually for the government. The government has presented the tax as an environmental measure, but the revenue will not be used for environmental purposes, or for infrastructure projects which could reduce aviation’s impact on the environment.
- The German Convention Bureau claims its first carbon-neutral general meeting, in July 2007. And the World Tourism Organization boasts that its upcoming meeting in Switzerland on travel and climate control will also be carbon-neutral.
The greenhouse gases caused by the events – by local energy consumption, delegate travel, catering, literature, etc – are offset by GCB with investments in a wind park project, and WTO with tree-planting.
‘Live-bad, go-green’? Purists will note that these perceived environmentally-friendly activities are not actually that. The greenhouse gases are still created. What needs to be done is to reduce greenhouse gases, not create them and then pay something like a fine for having created them.
Tree-planting etc is a cop-out guilt-relief measure, not a solution for global warming.
- The WTO is also warming to the challenges of climate change – if that is the right term. So we look at what the WTO has done.
Its head, Francesco Frangialli, says the world must “respond in a holistic way to…climate change [which requires an] innovative and changed behaviour to effectively respond in a timely way”. Although we suspect others may not understand what this means either, he continues: “We have to adapt. We have to mitigate. And we have to lead not simply react”.
A WTO report entitled “Tourism faces up to the impact of climate change” lists the threats – rising sea waters, receding ice, etc. But WTO’s achievements to counter these problems are only meetings about what to do, and how serious the problem is. And a list of more meetings planned indicates that is what WTO regards as achievements.
Sadly, the only conclusion can be that the WTO has done nothing but talk about the problem. Once again, we look to the WTO for leadership for the travel business. Once again, we have been disillusioned.
- Virgin’s light footprint:
- Virgin Trains in the UK is running one of its trains on a 20% bio-diesel blend for a six-month trial.
- Virgin says it invests all its airline profits into developing alternative fuels. It is working with General Electric and Boeing to develop a clean fuel capable of flying B747s sometime in 2008.(Information Washington Aviation Summary; comment Travel Business Analyst.)
- Virgin CEO Richard Branson hopes that within his lifetime, the company will develop aircraft capable of flying UK-Australia in 30 minutes by flying out of Earth’s atmosphere and back again – with almost no pollution. Note however, that this is not relative; UK-France would take 30 minutes as well. (Information WAS; comment TBA.)
- UK-based Virgin Atlantic, at the launch of its London-Nairobi flights, announced plans to help protect 2000 elephants threatened by the encroachment of small farms north of Mount Kenya. The airline will build a safe passage for the animals to follow a path in and out of their land.
The Fox
