(Reuters Breakingviews) - Europe’s airlines are flying into a carbon cloud. New ...
Climate change activist Greta Thunberg speaks during a Fridays for Future protest in Turin, Italy December 13, 2019.
Airlines currently account for less than 3% of CO2 output globally, but this will climb as air traffic grows and power stations and cars switch to renewables. Unlike other sectors, functional green alternatives like bio-jet fuel or electric planes are years, possibly decades, away. Until then, airline bosses have carbon offsetting – basically paying for projects like tree-planting to suck up CO2 – as their sole defence against regulators and teenage Swedish activists.
And then there’s Thunberg. In 2019, her flight-shaming movement contributed to a 4% decline in passengers through Sweden’s airports, according to operator Swedavia. Map that across Europe and carriers have a big problem. Assume a 5% jet-fuel duty and no free carbon credits, and easyJet’s 580 million euros of forecast 2020 operating profit drops to 465 million euros. But chuck in a peak-Greta 4% decline in passengers and it nosedives to just 150 million euros.
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