En 2021 se aprobó la ley europea del clima bajo el pleno convencimiento de que es necesario actuar de manera urgente para preservar el futuro de nuestras próximas generaciones. Esta ley implica que combatir el cambio climático deja de ser un compromiso para convertirse en obligación legal. Y fija el 2050 como plazo para alcanzar la neutralidad climática, es decir, cero emisiones netas de gases de efecto invernadero.
Como meta intermedia para ayudar a alcanzar este objetivo tan ambicioso, las emisiones de la Unión Europea deberán haberse reducido en 2030 al menos un 55 % respecto a 1990. Para ello, se han propuesto un conjunto de actuaciones sobre el clima y la energía recogidas en el denominado paquete Objetivo 55.… Seguir leyendo »
This week the French national assembly voted to ban domestic flights on routes that could be travelled via train in under two and a half hours. The new rule, which is the result of a French citizens’ climate convention established by Emmanuel Macron in response to the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement, will capture 12% of French domestic flights. Though it’s more moderate than the convention’s initial proposal, which sought to ban all domestic flights on routes with rail alternatives of less than four hours, this is the first time any major economy has prohibited domestic air travel for environmental reasons.… Seguir leyendo »
A medida que el mundo se vuelve más interconectado va creciendo la demanda de transporte aéreo; se espera que en los próximos años entren en funcionamiento más de 30.000 nuevas aeronaves. Pero para que este aumento se sostenga sin agravar el calentamiento global, debemos reducir rápidamente las emisiones de CO2 del sector aéreo, que son considerables y no están cubiertas por el acuerdo climático de París, firmado en diciembre pasado por más de 190 países.
Afortunadamente, hoy es el momento perfecto para ir deshaciendo el vínculo entre las emisiones de la aviación y el aumento del transporte aéreo. Tras décadas de negociaciones, los representantes de 191 países reunidos en Montreal esta semana para la Sesión 39 de la Organización de Aviación Civil Internacional (OACI) de las Naciones Unidas, han llegado a consenso para un acuerdo climático específico del sector aeronáutico.… Seguir leyendo »
Don't worry. It won't happen again. The Spanish air crash that killed 153 people of the 172 on board the Spanair MD82 at Barajas airport, Madrid, won't be repeated.
Statistics suggest that anything like it simply won't happen again in the near future.
Just to prove me and the statisticians wrong it probably will. I remember how we were just getting over Lockerbie in December 1988 when a British Midland 737-400 crashed near the M1 motorway at Kegworth just a few days later.
But realistically it won't. Flying remains by far the safest form of transport. If you travel by air for a lifetime you have a 1 in 2.5 million chance of being killed.… Seguir leyendo »
The past year has seen a growing storm of environmental campaigners threatening to bring the air transport industry down to earth. The past few weeks have seen two high-profile protests at Heathrow and parliament. Some groups are convinced that aviation is not doing enough in the effort against climate change. Planes seem to have overtaken automobiles for environmental criticism, although their impact is far less.
It is true that we in the industry need to do a lot more. But we have also been doing a bad job at communicating both our progress on the environment and the fundamental role that aviation now plays in the world economy.… Seguir leyendo »
After an excellent year, Boeing is counting its blessings, which include its competitor. They also include an anticipated doubling of the commercial aviation market in the next 20 years, which will require 27,000 new planes, costing $2.6 trillion.
Americans ambivalent about globalization should note how Boeing, under chief executive James McNerney, is prospering. The Sept. 11 attacks devastated commercial airlines, causing Boeing -- which cut its jetliner production in half -- to rapidly shed more than 40,000 of its 93,000 workers who designed and built the planes. But the revival has added back some 13,000 jobs and raised Boeing's stock price from $25 to $88 a share.… Seguir leyendo »
For once, I agree and sympathise with Tony Blair. Like the Prime Minister, I do a great deal of flying, for business and pleasure, and I haven’t the slightest intention of altering my travel plans in any way. Mr Blair’s one mistake in flying to Florida for a family holiday was to offer a half-baked apology. He would have much done more good, for the global environment and for the quality of public debate in Britain, by sticking to his original position, pithily summarised by The Guardian’s front-page headline on Tuesday: “Carry on flying, says Blair — science will save the planet”.… Seguir leyendo »
George Monbiot asserts that the EU emissions trading scheme is a red herring (Ministers know emissions trading is a red herring and won't work, December 19). The truth is the argument that he puts - that Britain should, or could, tackle aviation emissions on its own - is the diversion.There is no question that combating climate change is the most serious challenge we as a society face, and that aviation has a key role to play. Monbiot's position on aviation, as he explained two months ago (Drastic action on climate change is needed now - and here's the plan, October 31), is to cut the UK's aviation capacity by 90%.… Seguir leyendo »
I suppose I should be flattered. In a speech to fellow airline bosses a few days ago, Martin Broughton, the chief executive of British Airways, announced that the primary challenge for the industry is to "isolate the George Monbiots of this world". That shouldn't be difficult. For a terrifying spectre, I'm feeling pretty lonely. Almost everyone in politics appears to want to forget about aviation's impact on the environment.On Wednesday the secretary of state for communities launched a bold plan to make new homes more energy efficient. She claims it will save 7m tonnes of carbon. On Thursday Douglas Alexander, the transport secretary, announced that he would allow airports to keep growing: by 2030 the number of passengers will increase from 228 million to 465 million.… Seguir leyendo »
En la Terminal 1 de Barajas, lejos de las rutilantes y carísimas vigas de bambú curvado con que Richard Rogers y Antonio Lamela concibieron la catedralicia bóveda de la T-4, la pequeña persiana bajada de Air Madrid representa la delicada frontera que separa en la economía posindustrial la cumbre de los éxitos rápidos y el abismo de los fracasos vertiginosos, esa sutil membrana que divide el cielo hacia el que vuelan algunos proyectos cargados de expectativas jubilosas y el suelo en el que se estrellan, derretidas como las alas de Ícaro, ciertas aventuras enredadas en el hilo de sus propias limitaciones.… Seguir leyendo »
Hasta el momento, en el mejor de los casos, los pasajeros hacen en cada caso un acto de resignación, que a pesar de su carácter laico se asemeja mucho a la más genuina resignación cristiana: Dios, en su infinita sabiduría, sabe más que nosotros, y si nos hace pasar por este trance seguro que tiene sus motivos. No somos nosotros, pobres criaturas, quienes debamos poner en cuestión su Providencia. Pero aquí el papel de Dios, como muy acertadamente escribía en estas páginas uno de sus mejores columnistas, lo asume la Unión Europea, aunque nadie sepa muy bien a qué o a quiénes nos referimos al invocar a esta nueva divinidad que ordena nuestras vidas.… Seguir leyendo »
It is disappointing that the debate on aviation's role in climate change is guided more by emotion than facts. George Monbiot's call for a freeze on all new airport construction, and the introduction of a national quota for landing slots, is a case in point (Drastic action on climate change is needed now - and here's the plan, October 31).He lays much of the blame for climate change at aviation's door, but he ignores some basic truths. UN scientists from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimate aviation's contribution to global carbon emissions to be just 2%. To put things in perspective, road traffic contributes 18% globally, while the fossil fuels used to generate heat and power contribute 35%.… Seguir leyendo »
It is a testament to the power of money that Nicholas Stern's report should have swung the argument for drastic action, even before anyone has finished reading it. He appears to have demonstrated what many of us suspected: that it would cost much less to prevent runaway climate change than to seek to live with it. Useful as this finding is, I hope it doesn't mean that the debate will now concentrate on money. The principal costs of climate change will be measured in lives, not pounds. As Stern reminded us yesterday, there would be a moral imperative to seek to prevent mass death even if the economic case did not stack up.… Seguir leyendo »
By Jon A. Krosnick, a professor of communication, political science and psychology at Stanford (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 30/08/06):
THE crash of a Comair jet in Kentucky on Sunday ended the longest safety streak in aviation history: it’s been almost five years since a passenger died in a commercial airline jet accident in the United States.
Crashes are actually very crude gauges of the safety of air travel because they remain so rare. We must pay attention instead to the little events that happen every day in the skies and on the ground that very, very slightly increase the risk of another disaster.… Seguir leyendo »
As I write this, I am flying back from a two-day trip to New York, as a result of which I am responsible for creating 1.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide. Next week I will be making two return flights to Europe, adding another 0.2 tonnes, and the week after that, I will be taking my entire family on a holiday to the Caribbean, creating roughly six tonnes of CO2.
Am I a carbon criminal for creating 7.4 tonnes of pollution, thereby bringing forward the day of judgment when we will all get our just deserts by roasting in a technological, post-enlightenment version of Dante’s Inferno?… Seguir leyendo »
By Keith Jowett and Roger Wiltshire, chief executive of the Airport Operators Association and secretary general of the British Air Transport Association respectively. Response to For the sake of the world's poor... (THE GUARDIAN, 03/03/06):
George Monbiot's diatribe against aviation was full of the sort of emotive language one might see on an extreme eco-warrior website, with references to Orwellian nightmares and "unparalleled disaster" (For the sake of the world's poor, we must keep the wealthy at home, February 28).It is astonishing that one of the few industries where Britain is still a world leader, and which is essential to the prosperity of this nation, can be criticised in such a cavalier manner.… Seguir leyendo »
At last the battlelines have been drawn, and the first major fight over climate change is about to begin. All over the country, a coalition of homeowners and anarchists, of Nimbys and internationalists, is mustering to fight the greatest future cause of global warming: the growth of aviation.
Not all these people care about the biosphere. Some are concerned merely that their homes are due to be bulldozed, or that, living under the new flight paths, they will never get a good night's sleep again. But anyone who has joined a broad-based coalition understands the power of this compound of idealism and dogged self-interest.… Seguir leyendo »
Utilizamos cookies para el correcto funcionamiento de la página web y analíticas para estadísticas.ACEPTARPolítica de privacidad
