Climate Change and Aviation

A comprehensive and timely book on a vital topic at the interface between the environment and our economic system dedicated to continuous growth. As people increasingly realise, the political difficulty is that of reconciling the immense popularity of aviation with its growing environmental damage and significant contribution to global warming. Although many of the contributions are relatively technical, the issues are easy to understand. The four parts are devoted to aviation and atmosphere, drivers and trends, socio-economics and politics, and mitigation. The opening chapter sets the scene and argues the case for an integrated perspective which the book provides. The science is described in detail, as are the drivers, in particular the emergence of low-cost airlines, which have done so much to change aviation and travel patterns with their familiar business model, which is increasingly being adopted by other airlines. The last chapter provides an overview of policy options in terms of regulation, market incentives, environmental taxes, emissions charges, subsidies and tradable permits. The authors provide an evaluation of these various policy options, but they warn that the growth in demand for travel could easily consume all the emissions savings from other sectors of the economy. The real dilemma for governments is that absolute reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will only be possible if growth in aviation is reduced. This in turn will require co-ordinated international action, but national governments will be tempted to evade regulations in orders take advantage in their own interest.