Aviation Weather Over Europe for Today - Continued Economic Turbulence

Aviation Weather Over Europe for Today - Continued Economic Turbulence

The Chinese government recently made a statement that; the European Union's airline emissions standards, along with the pollution fees they will charge to airliners could very easily start a trade war. Interestingly enough, China is already engaged in a trade war with the United States and Europe, and they are winning. Perhaps, the European Union wants to sell more Airbus airliners, and China had assumed that if they purchased a large number of Airbus airliners that they would be exempt from these EU carbon emissions standards coming forth.

As it turns out, that is not the case. Of course China isn't the only country that is quite worried about the EU emissions standards. There are other nations who have lots of older airliners which will not meet the requirements, and the fines will be heavy. I doubt if there are any African Airlines which have an all upgraded fleet for instance, Russia too. There was an interesting article in the Los Angeles times on December 22, 2011; "US flights EU on airline carbon Emissions" by Dean Kuipers.

The article explained that airliners contribute to about 3% of the total human produced CO2 globally. The article also made a statement, and I'm not sure we can rely on this number, but; "even with millions of cars and trucks on the road in the US, airlines account for 12% of the transportation emissions nationwide." If that's true, it would be considered significant, especially if the global warming alarmists have their way, and if the European Union is really serious about cutting those emissions of CO2 - oh, and remember gasoline cars put out Carbon Monoxide mostly, not CO2 - slight difference there which would explain that 12%.

China stated at the global warming conference in 2011 in Durban, South Africa that they would be willing to sign an agreement which would be mandatory for them to start making CO2 emission cuts by 2020, with one caveat - the United States and the EU would have to start now. That may sound like a major accomplishment getting China to agree to something like this, but the reality is that China is already putting out more CO2 than we do here in the US, that's right even though they are still considered an emerging nation, they are putting out more CO2 than the United States. Each year that number will only grow.

China recently released their figures on automobile pollution and the air pollution in and around Beijing - the increase is phenomenal. It's so bad in fact that some of the pollution in California, almost 1% of our air pollution out here, actually comes from China - all the way across the Pacific Ocean! We know this because we know there are certain types of particulate which come from coal-fired plants, of which California doesn't have any, and the wind is blowing the other way, therefore, we know it's coming from China. We also know this because of the exact chemical compounds in the soot.

You see, my friends, air pollution doesn't stop for man-made borders drawn in the sand. If the EU's restriction on air pollution from airliners does cause a trade war, and there are storm clouds ahead, then it's hard to say what sorts of repercussions China will reciprocate with. Nevertheless, the EU is pushing forward. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and think on it.