Dutch aviation will no longer be allowed to emit greenhouse gases in 2070, fifty years from now. By 2050, CO2 emissions must be halved compared to 2005. And within ten years, activities at airports, not in the air, must be climate neutral. This ambition is stated in the 2020-2050 draft aviation memorandum by Minister Van Nieuwenhuizen of Infrastructure and Water Management.
At the same time, the cabinet does leave room for Schiphol’s growth. This will be limited in the coming years, partly due to the corona crisis: the old target of 540,000 flights per year will be pushed aside and 500,000 flights will remain the limit. But Van Nieuwenhuizen writes in the letter that in the coming years it will be investigated how growth in 540,000 flights at Schiphol can eventually be made possible.
In the meantime, the rules must be adjusted to give quieter and cleaner aircraft priority, for example at Schiphol. Attempts are also being made to increasingly replace fossil and polluting fuel kerosene with sustainable fuels, such as biokerosene and synthetic kerosene.
The airport must develop more sustainably, the number of night flights must decrease and the noise for local residents must be less. Not only should cleaner aircraft be built, but it should also be encouraged that more people take the train or bus for shorter distances.
Resilient
Figures for 2019 show that approximately 7 percent of emissions in the Netherlands come from aviation. CO2 emissions are falling in many sectors, but in aviation, emissions have increased by more than 40 percent in the past twenty years (1997-2017) as more and more people take the plane, especially for vacation.
Dutch aviation is hit hard by the corona crisis. “Until a few months ago, we were in a completely different situation with aviation in the Netherlands,” says Van Nieuwenhuizen. She thinks that aviation is “resilient” and that “we will probably be happy to catch the plane again for work, family visit or vacation in a while.”
Obsolete
In a response, the FNV Schiphol union wonders whether the content of the draft aviation bill has not already become outdated. “The outlook in aviation was completely different three months before the corona crisis than it is now,” says campaign leader Joost van Doesburg, “and no one knows what the aviation sector will be like in three months.”
However, the union is pleased that the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management recognizes that there is a relationship between social conditions in the aviation sector and flight safety. The FNV hopes that proposals will be made soon to improve the position of aviation personnel.
‘Hard standards’
But the North Holland Nature and Environment Federation is much more critical of the note: it leads to much more rather than less noise pollution. Director Sijas Akkerman says that the piece does not offer local residents any prospects for the period after the corona crisis.
“Hard standards are needed to spare residents, in the aviation bill the minister again does not dare to set these,” says Akkerman. “On the contrary, it creates room for growth in aviation from 1 to 1.5 percent per year.”
Furthermore, this growth would also make the climate targets for aviation “unfeasible”. According to Akkerman, the corona crisis is “just the right time to shrink Schiphol to 400,000 flight movements.”
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