Virgin Atlantic boss Richard Branson has called on the airline industry to set a good example by agreeing to lower CO2 emissions voluntarily.
Speaking to the Daily Telegraph in an interview conducted at the recent Copenhagen conference on climate change, Branson said the industry should start doing its bit regardless of what governments agree.
He was critical of moves to tax the industry, particularly when the proceeds do not go to green causes, and called for a global agreement among airlines to cut emissions and to donate a proportion of profits to environmental causes.
Airlines owned by Branson have vowed to run on environmentally friendly bio-fuel mixes by 2015 and he wants competitors to do likewise by 2020.
Branson said it was up to everyone to do their bit to forge a low carbon future even if growth in emissions from developing countries like India and China could not be prevented by a political settlement.
Further research money for developing alternative fuels, like the biofuels Virgin Atlantic has tested, was also called for by Branson whose support of expansion at Heathrow and determination to continue developing his interests in aviation was taken as evidence of his belief the answer to climate change does not lie in reducing air travel.
Branson criticised the shipping industry for its green record and called on ports to do more saying he could help and he said aircraft manufacturers could do more to move to using more green “composite” materials.
Branson said: “We owe it to the world to get our house in order. We have to make a low-carbon world capable of growth otherwise we won’t have hospitals and schools and society will start falling apart.
“We’re not going to get China and India to stop growing, so the challenge will be all about changing our ways.
“I would love every industry in the world to be clear about what it has to do.
“If governments don’t get their act together, or make stupid, populistic decisions, businesses will have to take action on their own and we might as well do that now.”