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Car Boom Puts Europe on Road to a Smoggy Future
Elisabeth Rosenthal, NY Times
Rebecca and Emmet O’Connell swear that they are not car people and that they worry about global warming. Indeed, they looked miserable one recent evening as they drove home to suburban Lucan from central Dublin, a crawling 8.5-mile journey that took an hour.
But in this booming city, where the number of cars has doubled in the last 15 years, there is little choice, they said. “Believe me – if there was an alternative we would use it,” said Ms. O’Connell, 40, a textile designer. “We care about the environment. It’s just hard to follow through here.”
No trains run to the new suburbs where hundreds of thousands of Dubliners now live, and the few buses going there overflow with people. So nearly everyone drives – to work, to shop, to take their children to school – in what seems like a constant smoggy, traffic jam. Since 1990, emissions from transportation in Ireland have risen about 140 percent, the most in Europe. But Ireland is not alone.
Vehicular emissions are rising in nearly every European country, and across the globe. Because of increasing car and truck use, greenhouse-gas emissions are increasing even where pollution from industry is waning.
(7 Jan 2007)
Rise of low-cost flights comes at high price
John Vidal, The Guardian
· Fastest growing source of carbon dioxide in UK
· Air transport growth puts climate target in doubt
The government’s aggressive language about the aviation industry’s failure to get to grips with cutting pollution reflects growing frustration that its emissions are undermining Britain’s strategy on climate change. Senior ministers are seeking to lead the international debate about global warming and convince the electorate that the environment is being taken seriously. But cheap flights, globalisation and the mounting cost of train travel have made aviation by far the fastest growing source of carbon dioxide in the UK.
Emissions from UK aviation have increased by nearly 70% since 1990 and rose by 11% in 2004 alone. While they amount to less than 3% of national carbon emissions, expected growth will nearly double this within 25 years.
In addition, aviation is the most highly polluting mode of transportation on earth, and its low share of total emissions hides the fact that the complex chemical reactions that take place when aviation fuel is burned at high altitude make emissions from aeroplanes nearly four times as damaging as those at ground level.
The government is in a double bind. While it is committed to cutting overall UK carbon dioxide emissions by 60% between 1990 and 2050, its own research states that this will be impossible if aviation is allowed to carry on expanding. The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research estimated last year that aviation emissions could account for up to half of the UK’s total emissions target by 2050, cancelling out savings made by individuals and other industrial sectors.
(5 Jan 2007)
Labour targets airlines over carbon emissions
Minister warns companies he says are not taking climate change seriously
Patrick Wintour, Guardian
The government has launched an outspoken attack on major airlines for refusing to take climate change seriously, branding Ryanair “the irresponsible face of capitalism” and describing the attitude of major American airlines “a disgrace”.
Environment minister Ian Pearson also warned that British Airways was “only just about playing ball” in the fight to reduce carbon emissions. His language is strikingly tougher on some in the cheap flights industry than the prime minister’s: Tony Blair has appeared extremely reluctant to be seen to be curtailing their growth.
But the minister is determined to stand up to the intense lobbying by parts of the airline industry, especially its efforts to delay market-based curbs being placed on its emissions.
He is also known to be angry that Lufthansa, the German airline, is opposing curbs even though the German government of Angela Merkel is making the fight against climate change a central issue of its G8 presidency.
Mr Pearson also said he regards the predicted growth in airlines’ carbon emissions such a threat to the government’s plans to cut emissions by 60% by 2050 that he still wants the European Union to go further – and faster – to include airline emissions in its trading scheme.
(5 Jan 2007)
Related from AFP: Pearson accuses airlines of failing to take climate change seriously
