Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
into account the role of aviation in delivering economic, social and environmental
goals in a mutually reinforcing way to the benefit of present and future generations.
As a result, most policy-making appears to work against, if not undermine, the deliv-
ery of appropriate policies based upon the accepted definitions of sustainability that,
by implication, allow society to make the final choice as to when and where resources
should be consumed, substituted or preserved.
Notes
1
Throughout this commentary the terms 'policy-making' and 'policies' refer to the devel-
opment of longer-term guidance or principles that may accommodate a range of differ-
ent positions and opinions.
2
Aviation activity is characterized as much by its traffic growth as by its poor financial
performance. Total IATA international scheduled traffic, measured in revenue tonne
kilometres (RTKs), rose by 9.5 per cent in 2000, an increase of 2.1 percentage points over
1999. (Revenue tonne kilometres are the revenue load (passengers and cargo) multiplied
by the distance flown.) Capacity, as measured in available tonne kilometres (ATKs), rose
at a lower rate than traffic, rising 7 per cent during 2000. (Available tonne kilometres are
the number of tonnes of capacity available for the carriage of revenue load (passengers
and cargo) multiplied by the distance flown.) This led to an increase in the overall
weight load factor of 1.5 percentage points to 65.5 per cent. Despite the strong growth,
the increase in operating revenue of 6.9 per cent to US$157.2 billion (from US$147 bil-
lion in 1999) was almost matched by the rise in operating expenses over the period to
US$151.0 billion. The margin between operating revenues and expenses increased by
only US$0.3 billion. Revenue was held back by yields (US$ per RTK), falling in 2000
by 2.6 per cent; with insignificant movement occurring in the cost per ATK (after inter-
est), the required break-even load factor (after interest) was 64.4 per cent. The increase
in the net result (US$0.4 billion) was marginally higher than the increase in the operat-
ing result (US$0.3 billion).
All 2002 forecasts are being considered against a 2000 baseline, given the exceptional
circumstances in 2001, and the central scenario is for 2002 passenger volumes to improve
to perhaps 5-10 per cent below 2000 levels by the year end. The air-freight market is
expected to lag behind 2000 levels by around 10 per cent.
3
The definition of 'sustainable development' in the Brundtland Report remains the most
widely accepted. This reads: '[S]ustainable development meets the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. This
concept was brought into mainstream government and business thinking at the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio in 1992 and
has been incorporated in various treaty obligations, such as the Amsterdam Treaty (1997),
which has made sustainable development an explicit goal of the EU.
4
Solow (1991) considers 'sustainability' 'as a matter of distributional equity between the
present and the future…a problem about the choice between current consumption and
providing for the future'. He considers, also, that the connection between environmental
and sustainability issues is not necessarily intrinsic and that 'current environmental pro-
tection contributes to sustainability if it comes at the expense of current consumption.
Not if it comes at the expense of investment.'
5
In both cases, the decision as to what is an 'acceptable risk' is a political, rather than a soci-
etal, responsibility. The precautionary principle was enunciated in Principle 15 of the
UNCED Rio Declaration (1992). It reads: 'in order to protect the environment, the pre-
cautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities.
Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific uncertainty
