Fly or not fly? Climate issues during the holiday season | Knowledge & Environment | '
Climate activist Greta Thunberg from Sweden never flies. Even at the United Nations Climate Change Summit in New York in September, she wants to cross the Atlantic without boarding a plane – instead, she is likely to travel by ship.
Although Greta sets new standards for sustainable travel with its behavior, the general trend so far is different: Air traffic is growing steadily. Worldwide passenger traffic increased by a third between 2009 and 2014 alone. More than 3 billion people boarded the plane every year during this period. The biggest increase was in Asia.
Choose green and fly on vacation?
And the trend continues: for Germany alone, the German Aerospace Center predicts an increase to 175 million passengers per year by 2030 – if everything continues as before. By comparison, in 2014 there were still 105 million.
This is remarkable, considering that one in five Germans voted in favor of the Greens in the European elections in May, and that more than two-thirds of those surveyed consider environmental and climate protection to be a very important challenge, according to a recent study by the Federal Environment Ministry. When it comes to travel, however, the climate conscience seems to be silent.
"We fly only every two or three years"
Morning at the airport Cologne-Bonn. It goes on quietly, yet the main travel time has not begun. 30-year-old Piet and 29-year-old Claudia fly to Thessaloniki in Greece for a week. No, he does not have a guilty conscience, says Piet. "We fly only every two to three years, and this is also our honeymoon."
Into new widths? Not better for the climate!
On the arrival level, Sergei is waiting for his cousin. "I myself fly four to five times a year," says the student from the Czech Republic. After all, he wanted to see as much of the world as possible, and with the plane one could quickly reach many destinations. And the climate? "Oh, somehow everything is bad for the climate," says Sergei.
In Germany, according to an Emnid survey, around 20 percent of them want to use the plane for their summer vacation, 36 percent prefer to go on vacation by car, and only 7 percent take the train.
CO2 compensation – does it really help?
If you want, you can compensate your own CO2 emissions for flying and driving. Organizations such as "myclimate" or "atmosfair" calculate how many pollutants a traveler blows up on the route with the respective means of transport and how much money is needed to offset the resulting climate damage elsewhere, for example by promoting renewable energies in developing countries.
Wind power plant in Ethiopia – Environmental projects should compensate for the CO2 emissions of travel
According to the German Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), the CO2 emissions of Germans per capita should be at the highest one tonne a year, in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees. Piet and Claudia are responsible for more than 1.4 tonnes of CO2 impact on their flight to Thessaloniki and back together. The proposed prices of the Komenpationationsrechner are about 34 euros for this route.
Sergej, a student from the Czech Republic, has not yet paid any CO2 compensation for his flights. "Maybe later, if I make more money," he says.
Although the Federal Government for Nature and Environmental Protection Germany (BUND) welcomes voluntary compensation payments. However, Arne Fellmann, an expert on transport policy at the NGO, points out: "First of all you emit CO2, but the compensation is initially only on paper, and while the climate impact of flying is immediate, climate protection must be properly designed and exist for a long time for them to work. "
Say: not every project in which a wind turbine, for example, is set up, is actually a climate project.
State subsidies for climate-damaging travel
Not only the Federal Government, but also the Federal Environmental Agency demands to reduce the existing tax deductions for flights. In Germany, as in most other EU states, airlines do not have to pay taxes on kerosene. As the UBA writes in its 2016 subsidy reportIn 2012 alone, Germany relinquished more than seven billion euros in kerosene taxes. Currently, the total would be much higher in view of the growing air traffic.
A tax on the aviation fuel kerosene alone could save 16.4 million tons of CO2 annually in Europe alone, according to a previously unpublished study by the European Commission, published by the German Transport and Environment (T & E) in mid-May. A few weeks later, France announced its intention to push for the introduction of a Europe-wide flight tax.
Fuel from water, CO2 and electricity
Back at the airport Cologne-Bonn. Rambhaskar and Ashrekha today fly to Venice with their children. "We went to Paris by bus, but traveling to Italy for 18, 20 hours with small children – that's just not possible," says Rambhaskar, the father of the Indian family from Cologne. He hopes that finally the airlines will do something to make flying less harmful to the climate.
In fact, the company Lufthansa Systems is researching climate-friendly flight routes. Above all, the focus is on avoiding climate-warming cloud formation. Elsewhere, people are working on a climate-friendly replacement for petroleum.
"Power to Liquid", PtL, is the name behind the system. Hydrogen is produced from water by electrolysis using renewable electricity. Thereafter, the addition of CO2 from the air produces synthetic oil. This, in turn, makes it possible to produce kerosene and other fuels, just like fossil oil.
One of the companies producing equipment for this process is Sunfire from Dresden. In a consortium with other companies, the company is building a pilot plant in Rotterdam. An even larger plant is scheduled to start operation in Norway next year. There could be produced in the future about ten million liters of synthetic oil per year, says spokesman Nico Ulbicht.
Quotas for the "bio-kerosene"
The problem: Synthetic oil per liter is still about one to two euros more expensive than fossil oil. In the long run, Sunfire predicts, the price should fall below one euro per liter. However, this also depends on the extent to which renewable energies are available, according to Ulbicht.
Power-to-liquid system of Sunfire GmbH in Dresden
Despite the higher price, organic kerosene is interesting for airlines, emphasizes the company spokesman. "Airlines that fly 'green' benefit from a marketing effect." The Dutch low-cost carrier Transavia has already won a first customer. In addition, one sets with Sunfire on possible new prescriptions from the policy. One conceivable scenario is that in the future every aircraft will have to produce a minimum proportion of synthetically produced kerosene in the tank, says Ulbicht.
Wrong hope bio-fuel?
While both UBA and BUND in synthetic kerosene see a solution for the future of air traffic, the international network for climate justice "Stay Grounded" remains skeptical. Anne Kretschmar of "Staying on the Ground" in Germany argues that a lot of time will pass before enough fuel can be produced by the PtL process. "But we do not have them," says the climate activist.
Like these protesters in London, the climate movement "Stay Grounded" does not demand the further expansion of airports
Therefore, "Stay Grounded" demands a structural mobility change – immediately. "Mileage bonus programs need to be phased out, and a few are already causing most aircraft movements," says Kretschmar. But to work only with price instruments such as a value added and CO2 tax for flights is unjust. Instead, the climate organization proposes graduated prices for airline tickets. "People who fly only once a year then pay a lower price for their ticket than people flying the same route for the tenth time."
In addition, the European rail network would have to be expanded and more night trains would be provided. In other areas, a change in consciousness is necessary. For example, employers should recognize more travel times than working hours, as occupational travel would also take longer if a sustainable mode of transport was chosen.
City-Night-Line-Train: Deutsche Bahn does not operate night trains anymore – that is about to change, say climate protectors
In Sweden, where the movement was founded, meanwhile, the word "flygskam" (in German: flying shame) has established itself in the linguistic usage.
According to the national railway operator SJ, the number of business travel by train rose 21 percent last winter, while the number of domestic flights declined sharply. For foreign flights, the Swedish "flygskam" has not yet prevailed, at least last year. Here, passenger numbers rose slightly.
ليست هناك تعليقات