THE SKY HAS A
LIMIT
More Action Days on Aviation and
Environment
October 29 and 30 marked the third
international
Action Days on Aviation
and Environment
. This year, about 100
groups in 18 countries took part in the
Right Price for Air Travel
initiative to illustrate the widespread
concern about the growing impact of air
transport on the environment and people
living near airports.
FoE groups in Cyprus, England, France,
Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands and Spain took part in this
year's action day. Several groups were busy
at their national airports: for example FoE
Cyprus handed out flyers and FoE Greece
carried out an action involving a model
plane. FoE Luxembourg held a roundtable
discussion on the expansion of the national
airport, and FoE Netherlands wrote an
editorial on aviation and climate change
which was published in a national
newspaper. FoE Germany was part of a group
of organizations that arranged to fly a
zeppelin during the Bonn climate
meeting.
Air traffic is a major contributor to
climate change. The United Nations
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
(IPCC) concluded earlier this year that air
transport's contribution to greenhouse gas
emissions could rise to 15 percent by the
year 2050 if no measures are taken to
reduce current emission rates.
The Action Day ran parallel to the
United Nations climate conference in Bonn,
where governments from all over the world
discussed global climate policy (see
article page 5). As no real progress was
made in Bonn on the issue of greenhouse gas
emissions caused by air transport, there
are still no binding agreements to reduce
these emissions. Air traffic campaigners
are now eagerly awaiting the upcoming EU
Communication on Air Transport and the
Environment that is expected by the end of
the year. Furthermore, the
Right Price
for Air Travel
alliance that took part
in the action days would also like to see
other measures introduced to reduce air
traffic's environmental impact, such as a
charge on emissions, stricter emission
limits for both noise and pollutants, and a
coherent Europe-wide policy to control
airport development.
Ilse Chang, FoE Netherlands
There will be an international campaign
meeting for European aviation activists
from 10-11 February 2000 in Frankfurt.
