Madam, - In his Irishman's Diary of September 24th, John G O'Dwyer takes as axiomatic the phrase "aviation is the fastest-growing source of CO2 emissions", without stopping to consider whether or not it is true.
He notes correctly that the aviation industry argues that air travel accounts for only 2 per cent of CO2 emissions worldwide. However, these are not industry figures - they come from the world's most respected authority on global warming, the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which issued its most recent report on the subject in May of this year.
As stated by the IPCC, emissions from the aviation sector are today approximately 2 per cent of total global CO2 emissions, and it is estimated that in 2050 they will account for 3 per cent of total global emissions. The increase as an absolute volume pales in comparison with the increase in volume of emissions by the road transport sector, for example, which accounts for some 74 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions from transport. It is therefore entirely misleading even to suggest that aviation is now the fastest-growing cause of climate change.
Nevertheless, the aviation industry is taking steps to limit its impact on climate change. Fuel efficiency has improved by 70 per cent over the past 40 years and new technology coming on stream will lead to a further 25 per cent improvement by 2020.
More importantly, we are committed to operational, infrastructure and technology developments that will lead first to carbon-neutral growth with an eventual vision of zero carbon emissions in 50 years' time.
Further information about aviation's contribution to climate change and what the air transport industry is doing about it can be found at www.enviro.aero. - Yours, etc,
ULRICH SCHULTE-STRATHAUS, Secretary General, Association of European Airlines, Brussels, Belgium.