Sand the air route can be covered by the rail route in less than two and a half hours, flights will no longer be permitted. Spain is considering a ban as part of its 2050 climate action plan. To be honest, it is not the first country to try, in fact the French government, which also succeeded, has officially banned flights for so-called “domestic” travel. A victory for the environment? Perhaps the enthusiasm is a little risky.
Spain wants to ban domestic flights
Having said that attempting to reduce one’s national carbon footprint is critical in the fight against climate change, the consequences foreseen with the ban have not convinced environmental groups too much who labeled it a more “symbolic” gesture than one of great impact. According to the group Ecologistas en Actionthe measure certainly represents a step in the right direction, but the setting of a threshold of 2 and a half hours for the rail alternative constitutes an important limit to the effectiveness of the rule.
For environmentalists it is only a symbolic gesture
According to activists, in fact, only by reducing flights with valuable rail alternatives within four hours it would have a truly incredible impact, because this would save up to 300 thousand tons of CO2. The ban on flights with alternative routes of less than 2.5 hours, however, could be insignificant in the long term, as it is calculated to reduce national emissions by only 0.06%.
Air transport pollutes and so countries are moving to do something about it (Getty Images)
Opponents of the ban on domestic flights
Similar to France, opponents of the new law argued that while «the damage that would be caused to the country’s airline industry would be considerable, the benefits for the environment would be useless.” It is not yet clear when the ban will come into force or which airline routes will be forced to end, as the process for it to be approved and become law is long and full of obstacles. Certainly among these the airlines that will strongly oppose the measure. It is true, however, that thinking about how to make transport more sustainable is the correct way to at least start reducing emissions where possible.
Air travel is not sustainable
The global commercial aviation sector positions itself among the top ten largest emitters of carbon dioxide emissions. And not only due to the massive release of Co2 into the atmosphere: to this must be added the no less important emissions of water vapor present in the condensation trails left by airplanes. In total, it is estimated that the pollution due to traffic aircraft contributes to an increase in global warming by 5%.
What countries are doing to regulate the sector
It’s no secret to anyone that air transport is still considered irreplaceable for its unique ability to connect countries, economies and people. This factor, however, is also one of the main reasons why the institutions have never given a strong impetus to change. Suffice it to say that it took almost 20 years before CORSIA, the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, was developed, scheme that involves taxing carbon dioxide emissions, but also limiting the ability to emit them. An idea which, although considered by economists as one of the best methods to reduce air pollution, has not achieved much: the possibility given to countries to voluntarily join the plan, it has in fact drastically reduced the flow rate. That’s exactly why some states are trying to act individually: this is the case of France or Austria and now Spain. In Italy, however, it is not a problem on the agenda at the moment.
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