Sign up to E-News
The World Development Movement slams Virgin’s biofuels test flight
24 February 2008
The World Development Movement slams Virgin’s biofuels test flight as nothing more than a ‘publicity stunt with dangerous consequences for the planet’.
The World Development Movement estimates that even if all flights from the UK used biofuels, the reduction in UK aviation’s contribution to climate change would be cancelled out by one years’ growth in flights.
The campaigners are calling for aviation emissions to be included in targets to reduce CO2 in the climate change bill. The World Development Movement has written to the Virgin boss, Richard Branson, to ask him to support this call, but has not yet received a response.
Pete Hardstaff, head of policy at the World Development Movement said: “This is nothing more than a Virgin publicity stunt with dangerous consequences for the planet. The concept of using biofuels and continuing the rate of expansion in the aviation industry is nonsensical. If Richard Branson is serious about combating climate change, instead of experimenting with biofuels, he should be backing the campaign to include aviation in the targets to reduce emissions in the climate change bill.”
Biofuels are generally sourced from crops that displace the production of staple foods. Consequently, food prices are rocketing as those crops are diverted from food to fuel, if this pattern continues and expands, millions of people in the developing world will see the price of staple foods soar out of their reach.
ENDS
For more information or to organise interviews, (ISDN available)
Kate Blagojevic
Press officer, World Development Movement
0207 820 4900/4913, 07711 875 345, Email:
Notes to editors
- This Virgin flight used 20 per cent biofuels and 80 percent, Kerosene, a fossil fuel, derived from oil.
- Biofuels cannot easily be put into planes, because they start to freeze at altitude. The process for producing suitable biofuels currently requires more energy than they create. Even if this problem were solved, the growth of crops used in biofuels currently have high emissions associated with their production, such as deforestation or the use of fertilisers which release nitrous oxide, a powerful greenhouse gas.
- Carbon dioxide makes up less than half of avaition’s contribution to climate change – water vapour, nitric oxide and nitrogen dioxide also add to global warming when released at altitude.
- Total UK aviation contribution to climate change is 94.8 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Using 20 per cent biofuel would reduce direct aviation emissions by 7.6 million tonnes of CO2. However, using current technology at least 3.5 million tonnes of CO2eq would be generated in creating this biofuel. So total UK aviation emissions would be cut by four per cent. And the UK’s aviation emissions are currently growing at four per cent each year.
Digg
del.icio.us
stumbleupon
Print this page
