Travel companies must start calculating emissions

Travel companies have been urged to start calculating their carbon emissions now to be ready for the European Commission´s mandatory emissions trading scheme.

Speaking at the Insitute of Travel & Tourism Conference in Gran Canaria, Jeff Gazzard, spokesman for environmental campaign group AirportWatch, said although the scheme was not due to be introduced for another five or six years, companies needed to start tracking their emissions now.

But he believes the emissions scheme will not be enough to combat climate change and argued that, for the travel industry, only curbing growth in air travel would make a difference.

“You might be bringing in better aircraft and operations, but these are outweighed by growth,” said Gazzard.

“These actions will only bring you 2% better efficiency, but the rate of growth is 3-5%. Green taxation is the key to cut growth.

“We (environmental campaigners) don’t want to put you all out business. You can still stay in business, make profits and give people the freedom to fly,” he said.

When asked whether he felt it was fair that higher APD penalises people with low incomes, he said these are not the people making the extra flights.

“The people flying out of regional airports on low-cost flights are people earning 50k,” he said.

by Bev Fearis