Heathrow Airport chief executive officer John Holland-Kaye called for world leaders to accelerate greenhouse gas reductions and push for a mandatory carbon-offset program for the aviation industry to fight climate change.
The head of London’s biggest airport signed an open letter also seeking more research into cleaner fuels and better efficiency technology, according to a statement on Wednesday by Heathrow. The letter, released at the Global Sustainable Aviation meeting in Geneva, also calls for the International Civil Aviation Organization, the industry regulator, to agree on a new carbon offset market by 2020.
“We must find innovative solutions to our most pressing environmental challenges, including those around carbon,” Holland-Kaye said in the statement. “We know we cannot do this alone.”
Holland-Kaye is waiting for the U.K. government to decide on where to build a new runway in southeast England, after its own Airports Commission in July recommended allowing Heathrow to build a third landing strip. A mandatory carbon offset program would mean any extra greenhouse gases associated with the additional flights would have to be offset, the airport said, an acknowledgment that stricter rules on aviation emissions may make the project more palatable to environmentalists.
Heathrow’s expansion is also opposed by local residents and lawmakers within Prime Minister David Cameron’s ruling Conservative Party, including London Mayor Boris Johnson, and Zac Goldsmith, who is favorite to be the party’s next mayoral candidate.
The London hub has committed to reducing emissions from the energy used in its buildings by 34 percent in the three decades through 2020, and it’s phasing electric vans and cars into its fleet of airport vehicles.
ICAO has predicted that emissions from international aviation will increase to as much as 755 metric megatons in 2020 from 448 megatons in 2010. Greenhouse gases from aviation make up about 2 percent of the global total, a proportion that’s rising as other industries rein in their own emissions.
The agency is debating three options for the market: a program whereby airlines could offset their own greenhouse gases through emissions reductions made outside the industry; a variant of that which also includes a revenue-generating fee, and a cap-and trade system, setting an overall limit on emissions for the industry.
Bloomberg News, edited by Hospitality Ireland
