Last month, 400 leaders of the tourism industry came together to consider what “responsible ambition” might look like in the middle of a climate emergency. There was plenty of ambition on show at the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation (ITIC) conference. There was rather less evidence of responsible climate leadership.
The conference was well organised, with a first-class moderator in Dearbhail McDonald, and some excellent speakers, including John Concannon, our new ambassador to Canada. But the programme also featured a demonstration of such brazenness that it sounded almost satirical. I am referring to an interview with Donal Moriarty of Aer Lingus and Kenny Jacobs of Dublin Airport Authority.
Moriarty and Jacobs assured everyone that they are working hard to get the passenger cap lifted. Why? Because the enemies of progress have stopped these gallant lads from putting more people through Dublin Airport. This crucial aviation hub accommodates a piddling 32 million passengers a year. The party poopers in the Irish Aviation Authority have just set a limit of 25.2 million passengers for next summer. Pah! Dublin Airport Authority wants to raise the limit to 40 million passengers every year.
To put that figure in context, 40 million people is more than seven times the population of this country. It would mean quite a lot of boarding passes, even for high-flyers like Moriarty and Jacobs. Of course, it would also mean a lot more carbon emissions. As any child can tell you, the transport sector is the fastest growing source of emissions. And these are worrying times. As the Potsdam Institute puts it, our planet is rapidly approaching “a state of red alert”.
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To be fair, Kenny Jacobs knows all about climate change. As he told the ITIC conference, “I’ve got kids who are very worried about this. I’m very worried about how this is going.” In addition to being a father and a worried man, Jacobs once worked for Ryanair. But not anymore. Today he manages our largest airport.
Moriarty and Jacobs did not reiterate what climate scientists have warned us about for many years. In fact, they had good news. Basically, as Jacobs put it, “technology will catch up”. Apparently, the solution might involve more fuel-efficient aircraft. It could also involve something called sustainable aviation fuel. This mystical potion could make a big difference by 2050. That’s just 26 years from today. According to the International Air Transport Association, “we estimate that Sustainable Aviation Fuel could contribute around 65 per cent of the reduction in emissions needed by aviation to reach net zero CO2 emissions by 2050”.
That is encouraging news when you think about it – unless, that is, you think about it with any rigour, which is what those misery-guts scientists have been doing for far too long. They point out that sustainable aviation fuel still has a large carbon footprint; that it is more expensive than (untaxed) fossil jet fuel; that the European Union needs to be far more ambitious in its efforts to decarbonise aviation; and that, as Mary Robinson put it recently, we may have no more than six years to act before the planet reaches a tipping point.
But seriously, guys! Such doom-mongering is really boring when you compare it to the power and promise of Irish tourism. And remember, technology will catch up. In the meantime, we need more flights so that Aer Lingus can “throw off the necessary profit”, as Moriarty put it. “In order to invest in… new technology aircraft and sustainable aviation fuel, we need to grow.” Keeping the passenger cap at 32 million “is actually environmentally detrimental”. Jacobs agreed with this laughable argument, though he did admit, “I know it sounds perverse for some people.”
I am one of those people.
The Don and Ken Show reminded me of that old joke about a man who wants to lose weight. “I’m on a see-food diet,” he boasts. “The more I see, the more I eat.” This is essentially what the lads were saying: let us make more pollution so we can fix this pollution problem. Which is funny, right?
Yet no one laughed. And no one heckled. Instead, 400 leaders of the tourism industry gave this double act a big round of applause. Then it was time for Oliver Callan, who looked a bit stunned, as if he had just been upstaged by two great satirists. To his credit, though, Callan couldn’t resist observing that “those two” made it sound like everything will be fine. Maybe we should all just keep on flying! And then it was time for some more comedy.
One day, we will have a serious conversation about responsible ambition, and about the necessity of cutting air travel, which is the only way to significantly reduce the impact of aviation on our climate in the short term. It’s a serious conversation because we live on an island; because tourism is our largest indigenous industry; and because climate change represents a grave and urgent threat to the future of our species. Until then, we will continue to hear more whizzo solutions from guys like Don and Ken.
Outside the conference, they were confronted by a small group of pensioners with hand-made placards. One sign read: “Children’s rights, not more flights.” Watching those protesters, I felt proud to be Irish, but also embarrassed to be part of an industry that does not appear to know the meaning of responsible ambition.
Trevor White is a writer and founder of the Little Museum of Dublin. A Little History of Dublin is published by Merrion Press
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