BAN ON DOMESTIC FLIGHTS - ENVIRONMENT
News: France bans short-haul domestic flights
What is in the news?
●
Recently, France
announced a ban on all short-haul domestic flights in the country.
Key details about news:
●
France became the first
country in the world to impose a ban on short-haul domestic flights. The
country brought in a new law, effective from May 23, that bars air travel to
destinations that can be covered by up to two-and-a-half hour journeys by
train.
○ Air
transport, globally, accounts for just about
2 per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions every year, and less than two
per cent of greenhouse gas emissions.
●
It said private planes
could emitting about 2tonnes of carbon dioxide every hour.
Emission from aviation:
●
According to the UN
Climate Change, if the non-CO2 emissions, like water vapor, are also accounted
for, the airline industry would be responsible for causing almost five per cent
of historical global warming.
●
Emissions from airlines
making international flights are not attributable to any country.
●
It also means that no
country has any responsibility to curtail these emissions. These are not
covered under the Paris Agreement.
Offset Mechanism:
●
In 2016, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) put in
place an offset mechanism to ensure that any increase in emissions over 2020
levels is compensated for by the airline industry through investment in carbon
saving projects elsewhere.
●
It is called the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for
International Aviation, or CORSIA, the offset plan is supposed to run from 2021 to 2035.
●
CORSIA is considered a
breakthrough, but it is not very ambitious. It only seeks to offset emissions
that are over and above 2020 levels. It does not deal with total emissions.