I realise it's not new, but British Airways' support of the European ETS is hugely important and I think it's a brave position for Willie Walsh to take. (Although it pre-dates his regime I think.)
Walsh points to BA's record of environmental innovation which, I think it's fair to say, is more impressive in a low-key way than the airline is giving credit for. They bit the bullet with a carbon-offset programme for passengers, learned the hard way what can go wrong with it, and are fixing it. And they've done all sorts of work on constant descent approaches and reduced speed cruise (which all save fuel-costs - but there's nothing wrong with that).
Walsh also claims green credentials for the 'pushback and hold' system for despatching aircraft at Gatwick, but I'm doubtful about that - I don't recall it having anything to do with environmental issues when it was introduced some years ago and I smell a post-hoc justification there. It's a good while before Walsh's time at the airline though and I suspect he's the victim of a dodgy briefing.
But where BA has really put it's money is in backing the European ETS. Here's what Walsh has to say: "It is hard to exaggerate the importance of emissions trading. For the European Union this is critically important. It allows the EU to show the world that emissions trading can work.
"If we can show that emissions trading works within Europe then we have a much better chance of showing the US and Asia that this is the best way for them too. It is so important that this scheme, on which so much depends, gets off to a good start."
But he adds: "I accept that the EU is in a position to lead but we must not make the system so budensome that EU airlines give away too much to competitors."
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