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Wed 21 May 2003

Air travel will breach Kyoto greenhouse gas targets

JAMES REYNOLDS

GOVERNMENT targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases, responsible for climate change, cannot be met without moves to curb polluting emissions from aircraft, according to a new report. Building new runways to cope with demand for more flights would only make things worse, the study by the independent think-tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research, claims.

The government has set an ambitious target to cut the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions by 60 per cent by 2050. However, by then, fumes from aviation alone could breach this target.

The IPPR report says that emissions from international flights are excluded from any action to tackle climate change under the Kyoto Protocol.

It recommends that carbon dioxide emissions from aviation should be included in an international system of emissions trading, with a global cap. Other polluting gases, including condensation trails and nitrogen oxides, could be tackled with a European emissions charge.


This article:

  http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/uk.cfm?id=571682003

Climate change:

  http://www.news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=52

Websites:

  UK Met Office Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction
  http://www.met-office.gov.uk/research/hadleycentre

  UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
  http://www.unfccc.de/index.html

  US Environmental Protection Agency
  http://www.epa.gov/globalwarming/