TUI Aktiengesellschaft
http://www.tui-group.com/en/nachhaltigkeit/environment/climate_protection/stakeholderdialog_klima.html
Climate Protection: Environmental Commitment and Stakeholder Dialogue

Climate Protection: Environmental Commitment and Stakeholder Dialogue


TUI in Dialogue

For years, TUI AG and its companies have been in intensive dialogue with politicians, scientists, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other social groups on the subject of climate protection and mobility. The subject of climate protection and climate repercussions for tourism has a high strategic priority.

In particular, climate policy measures for aviation have been under discussion within the European Commission for some time. Together with the Deutsche Verkehrsforum (German traffic forum), the Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie (Federal association of German industries), Lufthansa AG and other companies, TUI has been actively and constructively involved in these discussions.

The EU Commission's considerations are based on what was established in the Kyoto Agreement, that the Community should be involved in stabilising or reducing greenhouse emissions from air and sea traffic.

In addition to upgrading flight infrastructure, investments in modern aircraft and aircraft technology, this could be achieved by an international aviation emission trading scheme. This instrument is considered to be comparatively environmentally efficient and economically effective. The UN's civil aviation organisation's (ICAO) working group CAEP (Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection) will prepare concrete proposals between now and 2007. A study investigating how such a trading scheme might be organised was produced in 2003 on behalf of the Economic Institute's Federal Environmental Office (Link to pdf file).

However, at EU level, consideration is being given to including European aviation in the EU emission trading scheme for static installations. The EU Commission's general environment office has held a stakeholder consultation on this on the Internet.

Against the background of an emission trading scheme, the question of how aviation emissions can be offset by emission savings elsewhere becomes more significant. For example there are projects to increase energy efficiency or the use of regenerative energies in developing and emergent countries. In the Kyoto Agreement, the "Clean Development Mechanism" and "Joint Implementation" mechanisms have been agreed for this purpose. These mechanisms have been incorporated in the European emission trading scheme.

Based on the "Clean Development Mechanism" and "Joint Implementation", various initiatives in Europe offer the possibility of offsetting emissions from aviation by supporting emission-reducing development projects on a private basis. Examples of this are "atmosfair", "CLevel", "Climate Care", "Climate Protection Partnership (CLIPP)", "Cool Flying", "Future Forests", "Global Woods", "500ppm", "myclimate", "Native Energy" or "PrimaKlima-weltweit". Emissions are calculated by these initiatives, but with very individual calculation models, so the costs for the offsetting of emissions sometimes appear very different.