Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Externalities from aviation
During the last decade, a number of scientific studies have sought to quantify the
external costs attributed to carbon dioxide emissions from aviation (Brus, 2001).
Most of these have been published since 1995 and are indicative of the increasing
political interest in designing policy for this area on the basis of classical economic
theory applied to externalities.
If policy design is to be effective, and if abatement measures are to be justified,
robust values for the totality of aviation's external costs and benefits need to be cal-
culated (IATA, 2002).
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This exercise is made more complex by the uncertainties associated with the
prediction of the climate change effects attributed to aviation (such as the potential
climatic effects of contrail formation). Also, there are difficulties in properly identi-
fying and calculating these costs (whether under damage cost or prevent cost or
marginal cost approaches) for externalities that may be based upon direct or indirect
causes, or both (IATA, 2002).
Current policy approaches call for the internalization of aviation's environmen-
tal costs, yet do not take into account other externalities and the benefits from avia-
tion, which are assumed to be captured by the market (CE Delft, 2002). This approach
appears to be in evident contradiction to the fundamental principles of sustainable
development (see above).
Application of externalities policies to
all
transport modes in a non-discriminatory
manner could facilitate a comparison of the overall efficiency of air transport with
other transport services (COWI, 2000). It could also allow the travelling public to
make informed choices about which transport mode to use, especially where alterna-
tive transport modes exist (INFRAS, 2002).
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Whether or not application of exter-
nalities approaches would help determine the appropriate balance for the development
of aviation is open to discussion; it would depend also upon an associated develop-
ment of integrated transport, or intermodal, policies.
Conclusion
Aviation, in common with any economic activity or industrial sector, has particular
effects on society and the economy but must deal with environmental issues deriving
from its unique mix of ground and air operations, such as its attributed global atmo-
spheric and climate change effects. Most policy-making is predicated on the dual
premise that aviation's overall environmental impact is increasing on a year-by-year
basis and that aviation makes a disproportionate contribution to climate change.
Even though aviation's impacts upon the global atmosphere are not well understood,
policy-makers assume that aviation's environmental effects could cause potentially
serious and irreversible changes to the atmosphere and to the world's climate. There-
fore, irrespective of whether there is full scientific proof of environmental degrada-
tion or damage, these risks should be managed through policies aimed at the prevention
or rectification of environmental damage at source, and which seek full compensa-
tion from the polluter.
These policy approaches have an inherent weakness in that they address only
one aspect of the conundrum - the environmental - and do not satisfactorily take
