The current growth in air travel is incompatible with keeping climate change to manageable levels, according to a key Government adviser.
Jonathon Porritt, chairman of UK sustainable development charity Forum for the Future, told the conference of Institute of Travel Management: “We will not be able to have the growth in aviation we see today.”
Quoting the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, he said: “We have 10 to 15 years to change.”
However, BMI chief executive Nigel Turner told the conference: “Our industry is based on growth. Air travel is here to stay and we should be proud of it. Meeting people is the only way to do business, and video tourism is nonsense.”
Turner attacked “the vogue for blaming aviation for the world’s carbon emissions” saying “we can’t get away from the fact that travel of any kind is energy intensive”.
Air travel is growing at an annual rate of 5% and UK passenger numbers are predicted to double by 2030.
Forum for the Future is advising the Government on its Climate Change Bill, which will commit the UK to cutting 26% of emissions by 2020. Porritt said: “The Bill will include extensive enabling powers. The Government won’t need to go back to legislate if it decides to use them.”
He added: “We will have aviation [in 2030], but not on the scale of today.” He also warned carbon offsetting was not a solution.
“Don’t think offsetting means you can buy your way out of this. You need to move to using the minimum amount of energy, get the maximum efficiency from the energy you use, substitute renewable energy as much as possible and offset what is left.”