Will a call to ban cruise liners and private jets gain public support when many jobs will be lost and businesses forced to close, resulting in the loss of much needed tax revenues?
The newly elected Partido Popular have yet to firmly get their feet under the table after winning the local elections in the Balearics in May and environmental pressure groups such as Greenpeace and Extinction Rebellion have called for a ban on the industry’s worst polluters. The circular debate surrounding an island economy is relevant not only to Mallorca but to every other island dependent on overseas visitors to sustain their economies.
As the argument becomes increasingly polarised, the problem is we are content to talk over each other rather than having a constructive debate.
Governments, industry and environmental activists seem more content to grab headlines, which is hindering rather than helping their cause.
Failure
The failure of industry and governments to engage with the population has left the silent majority disinterested.
While the majority of our island electorate care about climate change, they are increasingly distrustful of what they read, and can see no clear path to a more sustainable future that will allow them to participate and contribute. What is overlooked in any call to tackle climate change is the way we live our lives and how actions will impact what we consume, and in turn how this will impact Mallorca’s economy.
We live in an inextricably intertwined economy and an outright ban on the obvious offenders, such as cruise liners, private aviation, SUV diesel cars and trucks, lacks credibility. The simple truth is the planet is warming up. There is more carbon dioxide in each cubic metre of air we breathe than ever before. Whatever we do to mitigate (and we need to do something now), it will cost a colossal amount of money. The question is who is going to pay for the efforts to mitigate today? If not us, will it be our children’s children who foot the bill of our legacy of inaction?
Global warming
Many of us, if not the majority, accept that year-on-year increase in CO2 is contributing to global warming and in turn the extreme swings in weather patterns, evidenced by the increasing frequency of drought, flood and circumstances where wildfires are become more common and devastating.
What the public are struggling with is who to believe and what to do when it comes to taking action. We know we must do something and on a scale that dwarfs the global pandemic of 2020-2022, not least because it will have to be permanent.
We must remind ourselves that the mitigation proposal being considered by governments the world over cannot be implemented in isolation and without careful long-term consideration. One size will not fit all. Particularly for island economies.
Environmental pressure groups
While environmental pressure groups have an important part to play in increasing awareness and hopefully in turn creating pressure on governments to act, they cannot do it alone, so collaboration with industry may prove more advantageous in the long run. In turn, we need industry leaders who are equally concerned about climate change, to take up the challenge and set an example by driving innovation across their own industry, and learn to cooperate with environmental pressure groups, uncomfortable bedfellows that they may be.
With a new party in power in the Balearics, its primary duty will be to the economy and the citizens that elected them. The Partido Popular’s immediate responsibility is to provide security, jobs, education, health, housing, and a future where we can all aspire to a better life for our children. However, with an economy where 80% of jobs are dependent on overseas visitors, the challenge will be to devise a sustainable strategy that does not adversely impact jobs and future tax revenues, which will be essential to paving the way to a more sustainable future.
Whatever policies that come our way, the public need a trusted source that measures and reports the worst offenders across every industry and, in a bid to stamp out greenwashing, legislation that penalises companies which are making fake sustainable claims.
We need a new and accredited international standard for carbon emission disclosure; emission reporting; and the mitigating efforts taken by companies and their customers. This standard could be applied to almost every industry.
What we choose to consume should within reason remain our choice, be it owning a second home, travelling by electric scooter v. an SUV or flying by low-cost airline v. a private jet. However, what is clear is that if we wish to retain the freedom to choose, we must pay our dues and cover the cost of our own carbon mitigation. And those who elect to abstain from heavy carbon omitting activities by going green should be rewarded with carbon credits.
Cost and benefit
Having the ability to quantify the cost of mitigating a ton of carbon dioxide is not just about assessing the cost to the consumer. It also allows us to assess the cost and benefit of any investment in long-term innovation projects, focused on improving the efficiency of our existing infrastructure. Aviation one of the obvious areas to look at, specifically the European air traffic management system. This is an obvious short-term opportunity to cut the level of aircraft emissions, as improved optimisation of the airways can reduce the emissions by up to 20%, due to the thousands of DAILY flights delays because of air traffic congestion. What is clear to both sides of the debate is we cannot do this without committed people coming together from industry, the environmental pressure groups and government in order to engage in meaningful discussion. Whatever path governments elect to follow, they need to bring the public on this journey of monumental change.
Clive Jackson is the founder of one of Europe’s leading private jet companies that originated in Mallorca. With several decades of business experience spanning the airline and private aviation sectors, he is now campaigning for greater disclosure of aviation emissions reporting with the introduction of a carbon emissions reporting standard, reporting the daily CO2 by each airline and passenger journey, and the measures taken by airlines and passengers to mitigate.