By Philippe Rochat, Executive Director, Air Transport Action Group, ATAG - Environmentally responsible Airport improvements and infastructure support
SubscribeAt the same time as the air transport industry is slowly recovering from its worst crisis ever, the debate on air transport and sustainable development is also resurfacing.
The sustainability concept calls for a proper balance between three basic interrelated pillars:
- Economic: economic growth is vital for technological advancement and the investment required to improve social services.
- Social: people should be included in discussions and decisions that impact on their communities.
- Environmental: production and consumption should advance in a way that does not diminish the world’s natural resources, now and for the generations to come.
Sustainable mobility can be defined in this context “as the ability to meet society’s need to move freely, gain access, communicate, trade and establish relationships without sacrificing other essential human or ecological values, today and in the future” (World Business Council for Sustainable Development).
Sustainable development is especially relevant to the air transport industry, which is recognised as an essential link to the global economy.
Air transport makes a valuable and unique contribution to our society – and the efficient and affordable access it provides to markets helps improve living standards and foster economic growth. This, in turn, alleviates poverty and results in reduced environmental degradation.
Air transport is one of the world’s fastest growing industries, evidenced by the demand for air travel that increased three-fold between 1980 and 2000, and that is set to double by 2020.
This illustrates how essential the industry is to modern life; few people could imagine or would want a world without air travel – since the benefits of being linked to all regions worldwide via a network of air routes are increasingly significant in terms of access, time savings, economic benefits and safety.
Growth is the central challenge facing aviation
A world of unlimited travel, however, could be equally and increasingly questioned – and despite significant technological improvements, the expansion of air transport raises growing concerns due to its impact on the environment. In this regard, growth – as a result of market demand – is aviation’s central challenge since it depends not only on continuous improvements in infrastructure and safety, but also on aviation’s ability to further improve its environmental performance.
Indeed, this is ATAG’s mandate: to maximise air transport’s growth potential in line with market demand, by pressing for the expansion and improvement of airports, air route capabilities, ground access, etc. according to sound environmental criteria.
Air transport is an innovative, environmentally responsible industry that drives economic and social progress
From an economic point of view, air transport is essential for world business and tourism. It creates jobs and facilitates the expansion of world trade by opening up new market opportunities.
It also attracts businesses to locations in the developed and developing world thereby satisfying the mobility requirements of a growing portion of the world’s population – and moves products and services quickly over long distances enabling economic and social participation by outlying communities.
From a social perspective, air transport forms a unique global transport network linking people, countries and cultures safely and efficiently.
It is increasingly accessible to a greater number of people who can now afford to travel by air for leisure and business purposes.
In environmental terms, air transport has been able to reduce or contain its environmental impact by continually improving its fuel consumption, reducing noise and introducing new, more sustainable technologies.
AVIATION’S PERFORMANCE FROM A SUSTAINABILITY PERSPECTIVE
Figure 1
Aviation’s environmental challenges
The environmental challenges facing air transport are being addressed at the local and global levels. In the immediate vicinity of airports, concerns focus on the potential health and environmental effects of noise and air pollution from emissions such as nitrogen oxides, thus presenting a major obstacle to growth and airport capacity increases.
At a global level, the major environmental challenge is related to aviation’s contribution to climate change, through fuel consumption and related emissions.
Massive media attention in recent years has familiarised the world with the issue of climate change. However, the impact of aviation emissions is very limited. According to the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), air transport represents 3.5% of man’s contribution to global warming from fossil fuel use, taking into account the fact that most aviation emissions take place at cruising altitudes.
Therefore, more than 95% of man’s influence on climate change has nothing to do with aviation, but is rather linked to road traffic, heating systems and other industrialised activities.
Nevertheless, it is foreseen that operational and technological measures will be insufficient in the coming decades to fully balance air traffic’s foreseeable growth. In other words, the industry’s contribution to climate change is expected to grow, from 3.5% today to 5 to 6% in 50 years’ time, while emissions in other sectors will tend to diminish.
Should growth be limited or should specific measures be taken to reduce its impact on the environment? These questions have a high profile on political agendas. For example, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is considering different market-based policy options linked to reducing aviation’s impact on climate change leading up to the next ICAO Assembly in September 2004.
At present, three types of market-based options are being explored. They include taxes and charges (which the industry, unsurprisingly, is opposed to), voluntary measures (which are recognised as the most cost-effective way to reduce emissions in the short term), and emissions trading – which is based on the selling and purchasing of CO2 permits between industries on the understanding that CO2 reductions should take place where they are the most cost-effective.
Communication and image
One should not loose sight of the fact that significant environmental improvements have already been made (see Figure 1), especially when compared to other industries. For example, aviation has achieved a 70% saving in fuel consumption, and prospects for further improvements remain very high.
According to the Advisory Council for Aeronautical Research in Europe (ACARE), for example, a further 50% noise reduction and 80% fuel saving are foreseeable by 2020.
Even if these prospects demonstrate the industry’s dedication to further environmental improvements, they are not yet fully recognised and tend to be viewed as “business as usual”. There are several reasons for this “image deficit”. One of these stems from the fact that the aviation sector has tended to work in relative isolation without involving other air transport stakeholders.
For example, achievements in noise and emissions reductions have traditionally been reported within the industry, yet there has been little or no communication or coordination with the rest of civil society. This, when coupled with other factors, has led to a distorted perception of our industry that falls well short of reality.
Improving dialogue and strengthening partnerships
In the context of sustainability, this lack of sound external communication and coordination should be urgently addressed. In aviation as in other industries, no one organisation, company or association is directly “in charge” of implementing sustainable approaches, and the creation of cooperative ventures or partnerships is, therefore, vital.
ATAG believes that partnerships must be developed at local, regional and global levels to deal with the main challenges facing air transport in terms of infrastructure development and environmental improvement.At the local level, the expansion of airports requires partnership approaches with local neighbouring communities. This dialogue should be broad enough to cover not only the environmental impacts, but also the socio-economic benefits of air transport.
The idea is for airports and local communities to share not only the negative aspects associated with airport development, but also the positive ones, including employment generation and the development of aeronautical and related activities in the direct airport vicinity.
The concept of sustainable development also calls for partnerships at regional level between various transport modes, with a view to ensuring a better use of existing transport modes and to developing an integrated transport system, especially between air and rail.
Finally, our industry must promote partnerships at the global level, to address, for example, climate change issues or basic development issues – thereby emphasising the vital contribution of air transport to the sustainable development of our global society, especially in the developing world.
By implementing such partnerships, our industry will promote a proactive approach rather than remaining on the defensive. By working in cooperation with other stakeholders, we will, in turn, address the industry’s perception problem. It is a fact that air transport is “attractive…a dream” – and, of course, we want to maintain this image. But we must also ensure that our commitment to environmental improvement at the global and local levels is recognised and understood.
Air transport already makes a valuable and unique contribution to the development of our global society. If our industry pursues further cooperation through partnerships, this will lead to a natural progression towards sustainability that will be vital not only to our industry’s future success, but also to help improve living standards and foster economic growth worldwide.
The Air Transport Action Group has developed a special section of its website www.atag.org/content/showsustainaviation.asp dedicated to sustainability and aviation issues.
Launched in October 2003, it provides a central information source on aviation-related projects, initiatives, events and reports linked to sustainability.