Sustainability and aviation:
Exercises:
1. In less than 350 words explain whether the following document by Air Transp ort Action Group represents a strong or weak version of sustainable development principles.
Reading is titled: ATAG (2012) “A sustainable flightpath towards reducing emissions”, available online:
https://www.atag.org/our -publications/latest.html
2. Tasmania case study (multimedia exercise)
“Development versus conservation in the World Heritage area: Ecotourism developers hope to provide tourism operations in the World Heritage Area and want the Federal Government to provide more assistance, but are also keen to strike a balance between development and conservation”
a) Provide examples of natural capital
b) List the main stakeholders
c) For each stakeholder, what variation of sustainable development can you observe? Strong or weak? Explain.
Unit Structure:
This unit considers the relationship between sustainable development and air transport. The unit begins by providing an introduction to the principles of sustainable development, and the different degree to which these principles are practiced. This is followed by a discussion of the current version of sustainable development adopted by the aviation sector. In addition, important questions are raised with resp ect to the socio-economic benefits of air transport. The unit concludes by introducing a broader view of tourism yield .
By the end of this unit students should be:
• familiar with the concept of sustainable development, and appreciate the complexity of sustainable development in the context of aviation and tourism
• Able to appreciate the different versions of sustainable development using the idea of natural capital
• Able to appreciate the role of air transport in promoting sustainable development
• Able to recognise that aviation is a significant part of tourism’s environmental and economic sustainability, thus also an important part in mitigating and reducing tourism’s negative impact
• Able to develop a broad understanding of how sustainable yield may be computed for aviation and tourism, and appreciate the value of the sustainable yield concept.
Sustainable development:
In 1987, World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) conceptualised sustainable development as Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:
• the concept of ‘needs’, in particular the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given; and
• the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs.
Thus the goals of economic and social development must be defined in terms of sustainability in all countries - developed or developing, market- oriented or centrally planned. Interpretations will vary, but must share certain general features and must flow from a consensus on the basic concept of sustainable development and on a broad strategic framework for achieving it.
Development involves a progressive transformation of economy and society. A development path that is sustainable in a physical sense could theoretically be pursued even in a rigid social and political setting. But physical sustainability cannot be secured unless development policies pay attention to such considerations as changes in access to resources and in the distribution of costs and benefits. Even the narrow notion of physical sustainability implies a concern for social equity betwee n generations, a concern that must logically be extended to equity within each generation.
[excerpt from WCED (1987), online access: https://www.un -documents.net/ocf-02.htm#I ]
However, “whilst the idea of sustainable development has become a central organising principle in debates about reconciling economic growth and environmental protection, it is important to acknowledge that the term is highly problematic and strongly contested (Adams 2009)” (Daley 2010: 170).
An indication of the complexity associate d with ideas of sustainable development is given by the fact that ‘strong’ and ‘weak’ versions of sustainability have been articulated; those versions differ in the extent to which they permit natural capital (such as fossil fuels) to be drawn down and con verted to human capital (such as education). Strong forms of sustainable development focus on environmental protection, which is regarded as a prerequisite for economic development, and they place strict limits on the amount of natural capital that may be converted to human capital … in their weakest forms, versions of sustainable development amount to little more than business – as – usual practices and minimal forms of pollution control. Needless to say, to date, many approaches to the management of environmental impacts have been based on weak, or very weak, versions of sustainable development” (Daley: 170 – 171).
Sustainable development (SD) is a complex topic. Daley (2010) provides an excellent synthesis of the SD concept in the context of air transport. Reading 1 is introduced to help you develop understanding of the principles of SD and their aviation-based interpretations.
Reading 1 is ‘sustainable development’ of Daley, B. (2010) Air Transport and the Environment, Ashgate, p.165 -176. (available online v ia the UNSW library website).
Take note of the following from this reading:
• What is the ‘tripple bottom line’?
• Why is it better to speak of ‘promoting’ rather than ‘achieving’ sustainable development? (p.167)
• Outline the basic principles of SD (p.171-175)
o inter and intra -generational equity
o ‘good governance’
o precautionary principle
o polluter-pay principle
o a ‘philosophy’ not a discrete entity
• Outline some of the main critique of the SD concept.
• “sustainable development is not about the way in which environ mental impacts are managed but about who has the power to decide how those impacts are managed” (p.175 -176). Explain this statement.
By now you should be familiar with the key tenets of SD. The ensuing section in Daley (2010) provides a criti cal review o f the air transport –sustainability relations.
Refer to p.176-201. Take note of the following from this reading:
• Describe the economic benefits of air transport as often suggested (p.182 -184)
• According to Daly (2010), what are some of the questionable as sumptions about these benefits? (p.185 -186)
• What are the implications of low -cost carriers for sustainable development?
• “the belief that the air transport industry and its economic benefits are threatened by insufficient air transport capacity and are lia ble to increase in proportion with new air transport capacity is, again, an assumption based on the experience of developed countries. Such a view may not apply to developing countries” (p.189). Are the experiences of devel oped countries transferable to developing nations?
• What is the role of poverty reduction in sustainable development? In what ways can the aviation sector contribute towards reducing poverty?
Optional Reading 1. Refer to Goodland, R.(1995) “The Concept of Environmental Sustainability” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, v.26, 1-24. For tho se wanting a more in-depth understanding of sustainability, this reading provides an excellent overview.
• What is a Ricardian tradition? (p.8)
• How is ‘growth’ different from ‘development’? (p.10)
• What are the four kinds of capital? (p.14)
• What are the three degrees of sustainability? Explain each degree of sustainability (p.15).
• What is the boundary issue in supply chain impacts? Why is this an important element in the environmental im pact appraisal? (p.59-60)
• What is the total upstream approach? (p.60)
• What measures are used to quantify the three impacts (environmental, social and economic)? (p.61)
• what are the direct and indirect environmental impacts of tourists? (p.61 -62)
•appreciate the type of outputs: for example, Figure 24(b) (p.64) shows that backpackers and German holidayers ar e most water-intensive (per trip ). This makes sense, partly because backpackers have long length of stay. Refer to Figure 25 – Mature (+55) segments tend to be energy, water and greenhouse gas intensive on a per-dollar basis (p.66).
• visit p.69 -70 and summarise the advantages and limitations of this framework for assessing the broader impacts of tourism.
Essential Readings:
Daly, B. (2010) Air Transport and the Environment, Ashgate, p.165 -201. – Reading 1 and 2
May, Murray (2006) Aviation meets ecology – redesigning policy and practice for air transport and tourism Transport Engineering Australia Technical paper v.10 (2) p.117-129 – Reading 2
Goetz, A.R., Graham, B. (2004) “Air transport globalization, liberalization and sustainability: post -2001 policy dynamics in the United States and Europe”, Journal of Transport Geography , p.265 -276 – Optional Read ing 1
Dwyer, L., Forsyth, P., Fredline, L., Jago, L., Deery, M., Lundie, S. (2006) “Concepts of tourism yield and their measurement” Technical report, CRC for Sustainable Tourism – This report is available free via https://www.sustainabletourismonline.com/ – Reading 3
Goodland, R.(1995) “The Concept of Environmental Sustainability” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics , v.26, 1-24.
References
Additional references (journal articles are available online via UNSW library website)
Dolnicar, S., Laesser, C. and Matus, K. (2009) Short-haul city travel is truly environmentally sustainable, Tourism Management , 1-8
World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) (1987) Report of the
World Commission on Environment and Development: Our Common Future, United
Nations Documents, online access: https://www.un -documents.net/ocf -02.htm#I