Grounded by coronavirus lockdowns, aviation mustn't be allowed to return to carbon-heavy days: Report

(Eco Business, 10 Feb 2021) Billions in financial aid have been dished out to airlines battered by Covid-19. As the world warms, governments should force the industry into decline rather than helping it back onto its feet, argues a new paper.

Despite what aviation giants may say, green air travel is still decades away. Instead of backing the sector’s return to its climate-disrupting ways, governments should initiate its transformation and reskill workers to cushion the social impacts of the changes ahead, states a new report.

Reducing passenger flights is critical to averting catastrophic heating. As Covid-19 keeps the industry grounded, nations should ask themselves how they can foster alternatives to flying and harmful tourism, and how to do so fairly.

Policies can be effective in halting airport expansions, restricting lobbying, and putting caps on flight numbers. But for the transition to be just, responsible stimulus spending is key, argues the paper, by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), a United Kingdom-based trade union, and Stay Grounded, a Vienna-based network that advocates for a cut in air travel.

Rather than bailing out airlines, airports and plane builders, governments’ recovery packages should provide social protection for those exiting the industry, fund retraining programmes, and create employment in climate-safe sectors.

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Eco Business, 10 Feb 2021: Grounded by coronavirus lockdowns, aviation mustn't be allowed to return to carbon-heavy days: Report

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