Cambridge Eco-Seminar pupils consider tax on ‘environmentally destructive’ air travel
The European Union’s emissions trading scheme offers the best hope for minimising carbon emissions produced by the airline industry once the global lockdown eases, said Professor Christina Voigt at the inaugural Cambridge EcoSeminar series on Tuesday (April 21).
Speaking to dozens of schoolchildren across the world at the online event ahead of World Earth Day 2020, Prof Voigt said the key decision the world faces is how to price “environmentally destructive activities”.
“Airlines cannot switch to sustainable technology easily and therefore it will continue to have combustion engines on each plane,” Prof Voigt said. “EU law for an emissions trading scheme puts a price on those emissions so there is a price on that [environmental damage] but international flights are not covered. The international civil aviation authorities are trying to find a solution to offset emissions from flights but it’s a difficult issue. The question is - how much air travel do we really need? How much is luxury and how much is needed? Whether you put a price on environmentally destructive activities - that’s the key area.”
A furious debate is currently raging as the airline industry - which retains $1bn in working capital, according to trade publication The Air Current - attempts to circumvent any sort of eco-related financial burden for consumer flights. The International Air Transport Association (Iata) has put pressure on the UN to relax emissions penalties as the industry attempts to regroup following the collapse of air travel because of the coronavirus. The schemes in place take a baseline of average emissions, which are likely to be much lower in 2020 with global flights largely grounded. Emissions over and above the baseline are taxed by the EU but Iata says it wishes to avoid “avoid an inappropriate economic burden on the sector” and advocates a return to pre-pandemic baselines.
One of the other speakers at the event, orchestrated on Zoom by Cambridge Schools Eco Council, was Cllr Rosy Moore, Cambridge City Council’s environmental officer, who commented: “Some people are very keen to get back to what we had before, but our economy wasn’t doing enough to seriously tackle climate change, and now a lot of people realise they can work from home so there will be really big changes and it will never be the same again.
“But this crisis isn’t going to be over quickly and it won’t be possible to go back to how it was before. By the time people realise this they may like having local holidays - as Christina says, we don’t know what’s going to happen.
“We need to use this very challenging time to prompt a more sustainable way of living. With airlines I really don’t think you can socially distance on a plane so this current crisis will force airlines into making changes which will benefit the planet.”
The delegates at the session were also encouraged to sign up to a household emissions scheme to evaluate and reduce emissions on an individual basis.
“The current crisis has shown we can make swift decisions when we have to and we have to do that for climate change - another way of life is possible,” noted Cllr Moore. “We need to not be in a situation like the one with coronavirus where we have to respond to the climate crisis overnight.”
Other topics covered in the 90-minute seminar were species extinction, the part snails have in the chain of life - “the role of a wide variety of species makes nature resilient”, said Prof Voigt - and the different national responses to the incoming crisis revealed by the 2016 Paris Agreement. Questioners came from Africa as well as Europe, with ages varying from ten upwards. Attendees including pupils, parents and even families listened to the speakers before engaging in a Q&A.
Future eco-seminars, starting May 5 and running fortnightly in May and June, will look at food systems, consumers and waste, and sustainable communities.
