Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Solow, R (1991) 'Sustainability: An Economist's Perspective', Paper presented at the Eigh-
teenth J Seward Johnson Lecture to the Marine Policy Centre, Woods Hole Oceano-
graphic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts
UNCED (1992) 'Rio Declaration On Environment and Development', Annex 1,
Report of
the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
, Rio de Janeiro, 3-14
June 1992, available at www.un.org/documents/ga/conf151/aconf15126-1annex1.htm
T
OWARDS
SUSTAINABLE
AVIATION
?
Brian Graham, University of Ulster
Recent academic analyses of internal air transport markets have been dominated,
firstly, by a shared focus on the effects of liberalization and competition and, latterly,
by the impacts of globalization. More widely, however, the contemporary debate on
transport and social change as a whole is concerned increasingly with issues of sus-
tainability, and the mounting recognition that present and projected trends in
mobility cannot be pursued indefinitely. These broader sustainability issues have
had relatively little impact on the academic study of air transport, either in Euro-
pean or North American contexts. Moreover, the thrust of current policy-making
for the industry, particularly by the agencies directly charged with the conduct of
the air transport industry, is largely concerned with the regulation of imperfections
in the liberalized, competitive and increasingly globalized market place.
The air transportation sector worldwide has experienced dramatic changes over
the last 20 years. Perhaps the most sweeping has been in the institutional environ-
ment, where long-established regulatory regimes have been modified, and in some
cases abolished, as a result of policies of liberalization or deregulation, resulting in
mergers, acquisitions and/or strategic alliances among the largest carriers. Together
with technological improvements and economic dynamics across all industries, these
forces have furthered the process of globalization, which is fundamentally altering the
volumes, patterns, directions, ownership, and control of air transport flows around
the world. It can be argued that the combination of strategic alliances and network
restructuring is the most potent manifestation of globalization processes in the air-
line industry.
Globalization, in general, is partly a result of economic shifts that have encour-
aged free trade and increased competition, achieved through worldwide processes of
deregulation and the removal of trade barriers. In this present context, deregulation
involves the exposure of air transport to
laissez-faire
, or free-market, forces, achieved
through the removal of most regulatory controls over pricing, while permitting car-
riers to enter and leave markets at will. The thrust of air transport policy in the US
and European Union (EU) has been driven by the shared concern to introduce and
implement a competitive market place. Nevertheless, as is a characteristic of all trans-
port modes, such policies do not encourage individual restraint in the use of envi-
ronmental resources on the part of any one airline.
It has been argued that sustainability as applied to transport has three basic con-
ditions:
