Professor John FitzGerald:

As Ms Donnelly said, aviation needs to decarbonise by finding other fuels to use. One of the reasons there is so little progress in aviation compared with cars is that burning fossil fuels in cars is heavily taxed, so people invest in research on electric cars. If there were heavy taxes on aviation fuel, something would have been invented by now. It is a strong argument for the use of carbon taxes as a driver.

On the ETS, one of the problems was that when it was introduced, allowances were grandparented. This protected the incumbents. I attended a meeting in Brussels 14 years ago to discuss the economy. Representatives from British Airways was on the floor below arguing for a tighter cap on emissions because if it got free allowances, new entrants would be prevented from competing against it. There are complications. As the EU ETS price rises, if we get rid of the free allowances for aviation, airlines will be faced with having to do something about it. Hence, we see Airbus aiming to produce carbon-neutral aircraft by 2035 or 2037. The Chair is correct that this is a serious issue. As Ms Donnelly said, it is a global issue. However, Europe represents the way forward.