ECO-LABELLING
73. The aviation industry is not scheduled to enter
the EU ETS until 2011 at the earliest. Friends of the Earth argued
that, in the meantime, interim measures were urgently needed.[129]
Besides changes to the aviation taxation regime (see Chapter 5),
we also considered the possibility of eco-labelling as a way of
encouraging airlines and passengers to make environmentally-conscious
decisions.
74. Flybe introduced an eco-labelling scheme for
its aircraft in June 2007. The labels are modelled on those used
in the sale of white goods and show a range of environmental indicators
(such as fuel burn, carbon emissions, noise footprints and total
environmental cost) for each aircraft. These labels are presented
as part of the on-line ticket booking process, in onboard literature
and in advertising.[130]
The aim of the Flybe scheme is to inform consumers about the environmental
impact of their flights. British Airways (BA) acknowledged that
it was important that airlines communicated more effectively with
their customers about the environmental impact of flying.[131]
When pushed on why ideas such as the Flybe initiative has not
led to a coordinated response from the airlines, Easyjet suggested
that the industry had been inhibited in the past by its "competitiveness
nature", saying that their appearance before the Treasury
Committee was "the first time we have appeared like this
together".[132]
Virgin Atlantic indicated that they were "coming up with
proposals" on an eco-labelling scheme, although at present
no such scheme was in place.[133]
IATA argued that it was promoting eco-labelling among its members,
"but only a limited number of them are today receptive".[134]
75. Other airlines have environmental codes and programmes,
and several publish data on emissions, efficiency and fuel consumption.
However, typically this information is not readily accessible
at the point of sale and is not easily comparable with other airlines'
environmental records. We suggested to IATA that they might get
involved in promoting the kind of "eco-competition"
made possible by the Flybe scheme. IATA assured us that they were
in favour of competition, but thought that it was "up to
the individual airlines to promote their environmental performance".[135]
At an oral evidence session on 23 January 2007, Virgin Atlantic
committed to writing to the Committee with plans of how the aviation
industry would cooperate on new environmental initiatives.[136]
At the time of agreeing this Report, the Committee had not received
any such letter.
76. The UK Government has signalled its desire
to see aviation included in the European Union Emission Trading
Scheme in 2011. If that aim is achieved, the Scheme should be
able to ensure that the aviation industry will be offered real
incentives to improve the efficiency of its fleet of aircraft,
develop cleaner technology and continue to grow in an environmentally-sustainable
way.
77. We are concerned that, in the interval before
aviation's inclusion in the European Union Emission Trading Scheme,
the aviation industry appears to be dragging its feet in cooperating
on environmental schemes. We see the airlines' failure to write
to the Committee, as promised, with details of how the industry
would cooperate in future, as symptomatic of this approach. Instead
of cooperation, a hotchpotch of company-specific initiatives are
developing, with a huge variety of responses from different airlines,
preventing consumers from comparing the environmental performance
of one airline with another. One information improvement to the
market for passenger flights would be an industry-wide system
of eco-labelling, where each flight's environmental impact would
be independently rated and then publicised to customers at the
point of purchase. We urge the Government, the airlines and aviation's
representative bodies to work together to devise and introduce
such a scheme at the earliest opportunity.
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