UK aviation sector promises cleaner, safer and less noisy planes

The British aviation industry presented a sustainable aviation strategy with specific targets to reduce the industry's impact on the environment. But green NGOs criticised the plans as not being radical enough. During its 2005 Green Week, the European Commission organised a one-day stakeholder debate on the need to reduce the impact from increasing air traffic on climate change. The Commission is expected to present a communication with proposed actions in this field in the coming month (July). One of the elements of the commission's strategy will be the inclusion of the aviation sector into the EU's emissions trading system.

A group of leading UK airlines, airports, aerospace manufacturers and air navigation service providers started a campaign on "sustainable aviation" on 21 June. With their campaign they are trying to counter arguments that aviation is becoming a major contributor to climate change and environmental pollution, and that growing air traffic in the next years will only worsen this situation.

In its report "Sustainable aviation", the UK aerospace sector promises to:

improve fuel efficiency by 50% per seat kilometre;
reduce NOx emissions by 80%;
reduce noise by 50% (for new airplanes) by 2020;
work towards practical solutions to include the aircraft CO2 emissions in the EU's emissions trading scheme;
undertake common reporting of total CO2 emissions and fleet fuel efficiency by end of 2005;
introduce plans for mitigation of noise and traffic congestion around airports.
Positions:

Environmental groups called the "Sustainable aviation" strategy "spin" and "greenwash". They claim that the proposed measures will be undone by the tripling of air travel in the next 30 years. They want more radical policy measures such as large taxes on air travel, imposing VAT on air tickets or ending air port expansions.