Letter to the Advertising Standard Agency regarding Ryan Air Adverts

The advert taken out by Ryan Air in today’s Telegraph and other broad sheets to protest against the governments APD misleadingly quotes that the aviation industry only accounts for 2% of Carbon Dioxide emissions.

The advert uses the government's erroneous analysis of aviation emissions which only counts domestic travel. If international travel is included, which actually accounts for the majority of aviation emissions, the CO2 emissions by the aviation industry are 6% of the UK total, (see government report SG/SG/3760, House of Commons Library).

Further to this, the advert does not take into account the increased radiative heating impact of the CO2 emissions, (see various IPCC reports and the aviation white paper) which is commonly considered to be up to 4 times more significant than emissions emitted at sea level. Given these facts, aviation is currently accounting for up to 24% of UK global warming effect, rather than the 2% claimed in Ryan Air's advert.

Also, the article does not reference the proposed increase in air travel. Under current projections, air travel will eventually count for up to 60% of the UK global warming contribution, when the full impact of radiative forcing due to aircraft emissions are considered.

The advert also makes the claim the government has not introduced the APD to help combat global warming. This is unsubstantiated.

By implication, the advert dismisses the recommendations of the recent IPCC report, the Stern report and other scientific reports which have all argued that significant and urgent cuts are needed to reduce CO2 emissions.

The advert’s caricature of the Pope not being able to absolve Gordon Brown on this issue is also offensive to Catholics. By implication it implies that the Catholic Church does not support Gordon Brown and therefore supports expanding aviation growth irrespective of the damage that this is doing to the environment.

I will also be copying this letter to my MP