Date published: 2008/02/05
The BBC says:
Some of the biggest names in European industry have begun a public-private partnership with the EU to produce greener aircraft.
Airbus, Dassault, Saab and Rolls Royce are all taking part in the 1.6bn euro (£1.2bn) "clean sky" initiative.
Half the money will be raised by the European Union and half by industry.
EU Science and Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik said the investment would keep Europe at the cutting edge and help combat climate change.
The use of public money for a project involving companies such as Airbus could cause friction with its US competitor, Boeing.
But Myriam Goldsztejn of Dassault Aviation told the BBC News website that a public-private partnership was the right approach.
"There is no other way," she said. "The programme is so huge that if we don't work with the European Commission we'll never succeed. It's too big for one company."
She said the project might not be an issue for the World Trade Organisation, as it was all about developing the technology rather than the product.
A spokesman for Boeing said he did not wish to comment at this stage.
This is a great idea in theory. But in practise, will these companies be able to deliver, or is this just going to be used as an excuse for the companies to be given a nice subsidy? Hopefully the former. An accompanying table suggests the aim is to cut carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide emissions by 40% over forty years, which is certainly a worthwhile goal. But there is also the small matter of the WTO.
_________________________________________________________
All material not included from other sources is copyright cambridge2000.com.
For further information or questions email: info [at] cambridge2000 [dot] com
(replace "[at]" with "@" and "[dot]" with ".").