British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh was scheduled to tell world leaders at the UN climate summit yesterday that the aviation industry could halve its carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, a spokesman for the airline said on Monday.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) agreed to the ambitious target to cut sector emissions to 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2050 at its annual general meeting in June.
Britain’s Committee on Climate Change said this month flights could produce up to a fifth of all global carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, from about 2 percent now, without urgent and drastic action.
PHOTO: EPA
IATA says a global carbon emissions permit trading system should be introduced to encourage cuts, rather than slapping more taxes on air travel.
“Carbon trading gives airlines a direct incentive to reduce their emissions. Flight taxes, such as Air Passenger Duty, do not,” British Airways said in a statement. “Taxation guarantees no emissions reductions whatever, and does not necessarily provide any revenue for environmental objectives.”
World leaders were to meet at the UN in New York yesterday for a one-day summit to try to unlock 190-nation negotiations on a new deal to combat global warming due to be hammered out in Copenhagen in December.
IATA also agreed in June to cap carbon emissions from aviation from 2020, and aim for an average improvement in fuel efficiency of 1.5 percent per year from this year to 2020.
Meanwhile, General Electric Co and BP Plc are demanding governments enact regulations to cut emissions blamed for global warming and create a worldwide carbon market to ensure developing nations slow pollution growth.
GE, the biggest maker of power-plant equipment, and BP, Europe’s second-largest oil company, joined other multinational manufacturers and service providers demanding leaders agree to cut emissions 85 percent by 2050. They also want rules to keep developing countries from logging tropical forests and money to help the poor adapt to a warming planet.
Without a global pact, industry will suffer from “uncertainty,” the firms said in a statement that was also signed by Coca-Cola, Starbucks, BASF and Rio Tinto.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
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