Meetings sector ready to pay for environmental impact
- MICEBTN archive stories issue 26
- Friday, 19 January 2007
The business events sector is being urged to help alleviate the environmental impact of air travel by paying to offset its events.
British Airways has taken the initiative by offsetting the flights of members of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives attending ACTE’s global conference in Barcelona. The UK carrier will donate about UKP5,000 to a charity group that plants trees to compensate for carbon emissions resulting from the delegates’ flights to Spain.
Offsetting is a means by which a charge is added to an airfare based on the quantity of carbon dioxide emitted by a flight.
British Airways said it had made the move in response to concerns being expressed about the contribution of aircraft emissions to global warming.
The airline said offsetting was not something it wanted to monopolise and it should not become a competitive issue between carriers.
The airline industry is starting to respond, led by Sir Richard Branson, who chaired a private summit of operators in London last month. The airlines want their voice to be heard at a time when governments are looking to impose green taxes on air travel.
Airline passengers are rumoured to be facing up to £27 extra for a return ticket to cover the environmental damage caused by their flights, under European Commission proposals to address climate change.
Reports from London indicate that draft legislation to be published this month, and effective from 2011, will require all flights arriving or departing from European Union airports to buy permits to cover their carbon dioxide emissions.
Hugh Somerville, a former British Airways employee who helped to co-ordinate the airline’s industry’s Sustainable Aviation Strategy, said doing nothing is not an option”.
“The key thing is to demonstrate it’s not business as usual. Carbon offsets allow people to do something personally and immediately. But I also accept the argument that carbon offsetting can simply be about assuaging guilt, when people should be thinking about the extent to which they travel.”
Emirates president Tim Clark said he believed there was “a degree of hysteria” attached to the green debate.
“If what the scientists are telling us is correct, then the aviation industry has to do more. We need to tell the public more about how new aircraft are more fuel efficient and environmentally friendly.”
Clark added: “Traditionally airlines have been the whipping boys with all the taxes we pay, but if you make life difficult for us, you will reap the whirlwind and we will not be able to do the job we were set up to do.”
— Ian Jarrett
