Worst EU Lobbying Awards - 2008

Campaigning against the expansion of LCA flights has certainly been an eye opener for the underhand tactics that lobbyists use, and the double standards they employ. So why not cast your eye over the Worst EU Lobbying Awards 2008 and cast your vote:

VOTE HERE

We couldn't possibly tell you who to vote for...but why not read IATA's nomination and see how you feel:

(The following has been extracted from the Worst EU Lobbying Awards 2008 web pages)

The International Air Transport Association (IATA)

Nominated for its deceptive lobbying campaign to avoid CO₂ reduction obligations in the aviation sector.

IATA, the lobby group of Lufthansa, British Airways, Air France and other airlines, has used a combination of greenwash PR and heavy-handed threats to convince EU decision-makers that airlines should be excluded from the EU emissions trading scheme or at least be given free pollution permits if included.

Aviation is the fastest growing source of CO₂ emissions in Europe, but according to the website created on behalf of IATA’s (Enviro.Aero) and adverts in major international newspapers featuring flowers and butterflies, airlines only contribute 2% to global man-made CO₂ emissions. This figure dates from 1992 and omits all the other non-CO₂ emissions and indirect effects at high altitude, downplaying the real damage being caused by aviation. If these are taken into account, aviation’s global contribution is estimated as between 3–7%, while in the EU, aviation’s contribution to climate change was estimated as between 4.7–11.6% in 2005.

As MEPs considered what action to take, airline lobbyists continuously threatened that reduction obligations for the sector would be an economic disaster and would result in legal challenges by other countries. In fact IATA is actively encouraging these legal challenges themselves by lobbying Australia and other governments to take legal action against the EU. IATA’s aggressive lobbying was partly successful: in July 2008 MEPs voted for emissions cuts by airlines of 3-5% from 2012 onwards, providing 85% of the industry’s pollution permits for free.

IATA is currently staging an exhibition at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, promoting their misleading information to an even wider audience.

Vote for IATA if you object to corporate greenwash and scare-mongering tactics to avoid greenhouse gas emission reductions

Additional information :

Climate forcing of aviation emissions in high altitudes and comparison of metrics ­ An update according to the Fourth Assessment Report, IPCC 2007, Hartmut Grassl and Dietrich Brockhagen, December 2007.

Clearing the air: the myth and reality of aviation and climate change”, CAN Europe ­ T&E, July 2006, p.33.

http://www.worstlobby.eu/2008/