The aviation industry must act quickly to lower its own carbon dioxide emissions or face government regulation, the chief executive of European plane company Airbus wrote in a comment piece yesterday.
Writing in the Guardian daily, Tom Enders said that this year was a "moment of truth for aviation" where the industry could either take "significant action together ... or as the time we lost control of our destiny and left it to others to `solve' our challenges for us."
Enders acknowledged that the industry had "to do a lot more" but said that it had "also been doing a bad job at communicating both our progress on the environment and the fundamental role that aviation now plays in the world economy."
"It is essential that we rise to the environmental challenge or, as an industry, we can fully expect that regulatory authorities and governments will take matters into their own hands," he wrote. "We must come together and move to the forefront of eco-efficiency. We must and we can."
He said that European industry targets of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 50 percent, nitrous oxides by 80 percent and noise by 50 percent by 2020 compared with technologies available in 2000 were "within reach."
Airbus announced earlier this month that it suffered an operating loss of US$1.4 billion last year despite record orders for its aircraft, forcing parent company EADS into the red.
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RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
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