The Future of Air Travel?

In the UK, airline flights account for 7% of that country’s CO2 emissions, but thanks to more and more cheap flights this will probably rise to 25% in the next couple of decades. Worldwide, flights make up about 2% of all emissions, and again the percentage is rising.

The numbers are not good news for travelers who care about the environment. It’s downright annoying spending a year catching public transport to work to make the world a better place, only to discover that your short break to Hawaii emitted more CO2 than you could hope to make up in 10 years of not driving.

For those who travel because they want to see the world’s beautiful places before they’re gone, the irony could blow a blood vessel – taking a plane to see the Great Barrier Reef, whose existence is threatened because people take so many planes…

So what can we do? For most of us staying home is not an option; there’s too much world to see, family and friends to visit, cultures to learn from, foods to taste and mountains to climb. And if it really is going we want to see it before it’s gone. One option is to hope the airlines can come up with a way to make flying more earth-friendly. Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin airlines, is on a mission to do just that. He’s proposed all kind of ideas – his work on using new technology to both reduce circling times and cut down the distance planes need to be towed before they take off is boring but immensely practical– but this last week one of them is off the drawing board and (almost) on the runway.

Virgin Atlantic has announced that in February it will make its first flight using biofuels. The flight – from London to Amsterdam – won’t carry any passengers, and it won’t be entirely powered by biofuel (only 20%, in fact). But Branson thinks it’s a step in the right direction. So do Air New Zealand, who are competing to get their biofuelled plane in the air before Virgin’s.

The two airlines have been working with Boeing and GE Aviation on the project, which will use conventional engines. According to the manufacturers, burning biofuels doesn’t mean modifying the engines, and it won’t affect the plane’s performance. Neither airline is willing to reveal yet what kind of biofuel they’re using. Why not, you may well ask. Does it even matter? Surely any biofuel is better than aviation fuel, right?

Not necessarily. A couple of years ago, biofuels seemed like the solution to all our problems: a clean, green way to keep our cars and trucks on the road and our planes in the air without digging up more oil and churning more CO2 into the air. Europe was particularly quick to embrace biofuels: they set a target for biofuel imports and alternative gas stations began springing up all over the place.

But it’s not all good news. As farming corporations dream of becoming the new oil barons, small-scale farmers are being kicked off their land in South America and Asia, and biofuel crops are replacing much needed food crops (with recent reports suggesting biofuels may lead to widespread famine). In South-East Asia, ancient forests and peat beds are being cleared and burned to make way for palm oil plantations so Europeans can fill up with biofuel – the clearing and burning is releasing more CO2 into the atmosphere than the biofuels could ever hope to make up. (Europe has just this past week declared that it is reviewing its biofuel targets to make sure they don’t cause more problems than they solve.)

The rethink may be the fly in Richard Branson’s green ointment, and the reason why he’s currently keeping mum about the source of his biofuel. Or it may be that he’s discovered a revolutionary fuel that he’s not yet willing to announce.

Let’s hope it’s the latter, and that it won’t be too long before every airline is filling up with sustainable biofuels, letting those of us who worry about such things fly with a clear conscience, even if it is to see the melting glaciers of Greenland.

–Jane Rawson

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 at 11:17 am and is filed under Australia & Pacific, Departure Lounge, Destinations, Europe, News & Alerts, Sustainable Travel, Travel Inspiration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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