Examination of Witnesses (Questions 292
- 299)
TUESDAY 13 MARCH 2007
MR ALAN
BUCHANAN AND
MR ANDY
KERSHAW
Q292 Chairman: Good morning and thank
you very much for coming in. I appreciate this is quite a busy
period for your business, with a number of issues that you are
addressing. You are very central to the subject of this inquiry
that we are now doing into voluntary offsets. Aviation, clearly
not just BA but aviation generally, clearly has to be a priority
for the offset market as well as in the medium term abatement.
Do you think that airlines generally are giving enough priority
to offsetting?
Mr Buchanan: Thank you for inviting
us to talk to you. Clearly, I can only principally speak for British
Airways, where we have given priority to voluntary carbon offsetting
along with a number of other measures that we believe are vital
to climate change. Voluntary offsetting has an important role
to play but is alongside measures to reduce emissions overall
such as technological improvements in engines and airframes and
operational improvements which will result in fuel burn efficiencies.
It is part of a suite of things that need to be done. Offsets
are very helpful in raising awareness about the impact of aviation.
Having said that, the current levels of emission produced by UK
aviation are not as dramatic as the media would sometimes have
us believe.
Q293 Chairman: Nevertheless, they
are significant and they are rising faster than most of the other
sources. Although it is true, clearly, that airlines are taking
a number of steps, things like technological improvements will
only have an effect over a considerable period of time whereas
offsets are something which are available right now given that
people are going to go on flying for the next 10 years and a lot
of the progress that you refer to will take at least as long as
that to become meaningful in its impact. Given that, are you satisfied
with the progress that you are making as BA in getting your customers
to offset?
Mr Buchanan: British Airways was
the first major airline to introduce an offset scheme and we are
proud of that. We still think we have a very good record and we
have a very good story to tell in relation to climate change overall.
The scheme that we have was set up in September 2005. At the time,
I believe you spoke to my predecessor, Andrew Sentence, about
this last year. Work was ongoing at the end of last year to improve
the scheme, to improve its visibility and its attractiveness to
passengers. For reasons that will be well known to you, that work
was put on hold because it was felt that, in line with an increase
in mandatory taxation, customers would not be willing to increase
their voluntary offsets at that time, but I think the time has
come for us to look again at the work we did back in December
and make sure it is still relevant and begin to think about introducing
it again.
Q294 Chairman: What has been the
take-up so far?
Mr Buchanan: The take-up has been
disappointing, and it has been largely flat throughout the period.
So after getting to an initial level, it has been fairly stable.
Q295 Chairman: Given that the scheme
has been operating for a year and a half now, what is the total
number of offsets that have been taken up so far?
Mr Buchanan: It is about 1,600
tonnes a year.
Q296 Chairman: That it is an infinitesimal
amount in relation to BA's activity, is it not?
Mr Buchanan: It is small, yes.
Q297 Chairman: Why do you think that
is?
Mr Buchanan: I am not sure that
a lot of passengers are as keen to offset emissions as we all
hoped that they might be. We have evidence from the take-up that
it is price-sensitive. We find that there is more offsetting in
the short haul market than there is in the long haul market, for
example.
Q298 Chairman: Did you discuss with
your passengers in advance the way in which this scheme might
be made available to them?
Mr Buchanan: I clearly was not
responsible for it in September 2005 but as part of our wider
corporate responsibility programme, we did some stakeholder research
in October 2006 and included in that was a question specific to
the offsetting offering that we were giving. We were looking at
the time particularly at the question of whether or not we should
make it an opt-out or an opt-in scheme. We have taken views from
passengers.
Q299 Chairman: Are you aware of the
experience of some of your customers who would like to offset
that it is extremely difficult to do so, either electronically
or in conversation with your staff?
Mr Buchanan: I am sorry if that
is the case. I know that it is not foremost. It does not leap
off the website at you but it can easily be found by searching
in the website for "carbon" or "emissions"
or any of those keywords.
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