Boulding, Brundtland, Economics, and Efforts to Integrate Air Transportation Policies into Sustainable Development

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the ideas of Kenneth Boulding and of the Brundtland Commission regarding sustainable development and the extent to which they have permeated air transportation policies. While aviation has seen a considerable reduction in the environmental footprints of individual travelers since the late 1970s as competitive markets have forced airlines to be more frugal in their use of fuel, at the same time, lower fares have given greater access for people to fly. The result has been an overall increase in CO2 emissions. In consequence, while sustainable objectives of greater economic equality and social integration have been achieved, objectives associated with maintaining the global resource base may have not. In addition, the policies used in trying to regulate the adverse environmental effects of air transportation have also tended to be based upon neoclassical economics and thus failed to account for the holistic nature of sustainable development. One practical reason for this has been a lack of integrated policy making. Air transportation is a mobile source of emissions with many global environmental implications, as well local effects such as airport noise and the pollution generated by land access vehicles. The institutional structures focusing on sustainable development seldom have either the appropriate geographical authority or policy tool kits to handle this.