Richard Branson calls for airlines to lower their carbon emissions
Branson at the climate change conference last year
The Virgin Atlantic boss wants airlines to lower their CO2 emissions volntarily
With Britons producing more carbon emissions per head than any other country, and in light of the conference on climate change in Copenhagen last year, it has become even more pertinent for airlines to cut down on carbon emissions.
Now Virgin Atlantic boss Richard Branson has entered the debate, calling on the industry to set a good example by agreeing to lower CO2 emissions voluntarily.
Airlines owned by Branson have vowed to run on environmentally friendly bio-fuel mixes by 2015 and he wants competitors to follow suit by 2020. 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.’
However, air passengers aren’t getting off scot-free. Willie Walsh, the chief executive of British Airways, proposed last year that all passengers should pay an additional sum, to raise at least $5 billion a year to combat tropical deforestation and help developing countries to adapt to climate change. Walsh has said that the cost per passenger and the overall sum raised by the global tax would depend on the cost of carbon-emissions permits on the global market. He warned that it could be ‘four or five times the $5 billion if the price of carbon goes up’.
Branson at the climate change conference last year
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