Talk of a trade war is now in the open over the insistence by Connie Hedegaard, the EU’s Commisioner for Climate Action since 2010, that there would be no exemptions for foreign airlines using EU airspace from the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme, writes John Barrington-Carver.
As a long-term climate change person she returned to politics in 2004 after 14 years in journalism to become the Danish Environment Minister. Following her appointment, the international global warming debate reached a furious climax with the BBC broadcasting footage of inundation (“due to rising sea levels”) on a South Sea island. No one bothered to establish though if the island, situated on the Pacific Ring of Fire, might not have been sinking because it was on a tectonic plate that was being depressed.
There was, I recall, an almost religious acceptance that global warming was a fact and an immediate threat to the world. Aviation was singled out as a major culprit despite the fact that its global CO2 footprint was only 2 per cent and despite the fact that, as an industry, it had made huge strides in fuel efficiency.
Furthermore, it had industrywide action plans to address emissions and noise pollution. It’s worth looking at the UK aviation industry plans to address emissions on the Sustainable Aviation site, which was never mentioned by the eco warriors at the height of the assault on aviation. Such was the anti-aviation clamour that the Bishop of London even declared it is a “sin to fly” (although in what context I am not sure).
It’s only in the past year or so that the global warming debate has calmed down and with it media attacks on flying. The credibility of the science behind the global warning protagonists’ position came under scrutiny and evidence has been put forward recently that there is a current period of global cooling. It’s worthwhile reading Michael Crichton’s excellent novel “State of Fear” (published by HarperCollins in 2004). It is incredibly well researched and even-handed, leaving its readers to decide on the merits and demerits of the global warming arguments.
This period of debate about global warming and Ms Hedegaard’s active involvement in climate change, including her hosting the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen 2009, may well have shaped her laudable commitment to achieving a global approach to curbing greenhouse gas emissions. The focus at that time on aviation as a major polluter, despite its actual contribution, may lie behind Connie Hedegaard’s current refusal to stand down on the EU’s unilateral legislation to include global airlines in the EU ETS. This is despite the real and voiced concerns of EU manufacturers that may suffer as a result of her stance.
However, airlines do not have to pay for their emissions until April 2013 so there is a little time for the international community to try to work out the current impasse and avoid the threatened trade war. While claiming in today’s FT that the international community cannot threaten the EU with a trade war just because EU unilateral legislation is not to their liking, she is also talking of working hard to achieve the ICAO’s global aviation carbon trading scheme. Let’s hope that all parties can talk fast enough to avoid the 1 April 2013 payment deadline becoming a flash point for the potential trade war.
(Image: dullhunk)
