The UK government has been heavily criticised by a parliamentary select committee for its "poor response" to a new report on the environmental impact of aviation.
The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC), comprising 16 Members of Parliament, accuses the Department for Transport (DFT) of rejecting the findings of its latest report "without adequate consideration or explanation and in an overtly challenging manner". It finds the DFT's statistics backing up its approach to aviation contained "apparent inconsistencies". The EAC is also "astonished" at the lack of research to underpin the incorporation of aviation into the European Union's planned emissions trading system.
The EAC finds it "bizarre" that given the apparent government priority on attacking global warming, it assumes there will be no reduction in greenhouse gases, other than carbon dioxide, over the next 50 years. "In setting the 60% carbon reduction target last year, the government failed to clarify how it related to greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide. It must do so as a matter of urgency."
The EAC has given the DFT two months to improve its response.
JULIAN MOXON / LONDO
Source: Flight International