Madam, - The recent Open Skies agreement is a disaster in the fight against climate change. As EU transport ministers congratulated themselves on a projected doubling of transatlantic traffic to 75 million passengers over the next five years, did they stop to consider the resultant increase in carbon dioxide emissions?
Per passenger mile, aircraft emit half the CO2 of an average car. However, because these emissions occur at high altitude the effect is more than doubled. Consequently, when you fly to a destination the environmental impact is roughly the same as if you had driven there instead.
A round trip to New York is 7,000 miles, more than half of what most people drive in a single year. Increasing passenger numbers by 37.5 million is therefore equivalent to putting 18.75 million extra cars on EU roads. Estimating one car for every four people and a population of 500 million, this equates to a 15 per cent increase in cars - or, more to the point, a 15 per cent increase in car exhaust emissions. This is completely at odds with the EU's target of a 20 per cent cut in greenhouse gases by 2020.
When will we and our governments take climate change seriously? If the growth in aviation is left unchecked the increased emissions in the skies above will cancel out any reductions made on the ground. If we are to have any chance of saving the biosphere we need to reduce and impose limits on our activities. That includes weekend shopping trips to New York. - Yours, etc,
BRIAN DILLON, Ballyline, Callan, Co Kilkenny.