Since a few weeks ago travellers flying British Airways (BA) can choose to pay a voluntary fee towards projects that compensate for the flight's emissions, and other airlines might follow suit soon.
I think it's a great idea! Did you know that if we divided the number of flights the global population could do without doing any damage to the environment (i.e. status quo or sustainability) , each person would only be able to do a one-way flight between London and New York in a lifetime*. So I have already taken up 20-30 people's lifetime allotment of flights! Sure, most people in the world don't and will never have the opportunity to fly places, but still, the amount of time the rest of spend in the air... it adds up.
BA cooperates with the environmental organisation Climate Care. In this first trial round, passengers may choose between supporting low energy lightbulbs for poor households in South Africa, which reduces the amount of coal burnt, or energy efficient cookers in Honduras, which reduces forest devastation.
The only thing that worries me is the fact that a DN poll showed that almost 70 % would not want to pay such a fee. They don't want to pay a fee that equals the amount they spend on a cup of coffee or a lunch (depending on the distance). Don't they understand that this is an investment in their children's future?
Other airlines are very positive towards the initiative. Passengers are less so, as indicated by the DN poll, maybe because the EU as well as the Swedish government is simultaneously discussing a tax on airplane fuel. According to the Swedish government's (together with the Greens) proposal, a tax would mean 50-100 kronor on top of the price of a one-way ticket. Personally I think subjecting jet fuel to Kyoto and the emissions trading is more interesting than a tax. The airlines themselves, including US companies, are lobbying the European Commission to go with this option rather than taxation. Whatever happens I hope the money goes towards the environment, be it specific environmental projects or towards environmental research and development.
* Stockholm-Paris = 350 kilo greenhouse gases; Stockholm-New York = 1 tonne
If you don't want to pay the fee, you can always holiday at home. And choose a job where you don't have to fly. Flights are not obligatory.
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I think the BA-thing is a great idea, and if enough people won't compensate the harm flying does to the environment, a tax or legislation in some form is nedded. I have heard it would be difficult to tax airplane fuel for some reason, and that the most easy thing would be to add a fee to the flight you buy. Anyway, market economy and globalization are great things, BUT it must bear its own social and environmental costs.
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