DUBLIN, Jan 20 (Reuters) – Airlines with the best environmental scores should pay less for leasing aircraft than more polluting competitors, the head of one of the world’s top leasing companies said on Monday.
The radical proposal from Dublin-based Avolon comes as aviation firms face mounting scrutiny over climate policies not only from environmental groups but also investment funds that monitor Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance.
Avolon, one of the top three aircraft lessors, claims to have one of the industry’s youngest and most efficient fleets.
“But that narrative is not good enough for the next 1, 2, 3 or 4 years,” Chief Executive Domhnal Slattery warned.
“More and more of our major bond investors are keen to understand what our ‘E’ strategy is within ‘ESG’. We in turn are keen to understand when underwriting our airline credits what their ‘E’ strategy is,” he told Reuters.
Slattery predicted that lessors, which depend heavily on access to funds to run their capital-intensive businesses, would in future exert more pressure on airlines.
“You could see over time that airlines that have a better environmental score could get lower lease rates,” he said.
BERLIN (Reuters) – Around 250 Germans on Saturday protested in the outskirts of Berlin where electric car startup Tesla is planning to build a gigafactory, saying its construction will endanger water supply and wildlife in the area.
The U.S. carmaker announced plans last November to build its first European car factory in Gruenheide, in the eastern state of Brandenburg.
Politicians, unions and industry groups have welcomed the move, saying it will bring jobs to the region, but environmental concerns drove hundreds of locals to the streets on Saturday.
“We are here, we are loud, because Tesla is stealing our water,” protesters called.
Saturday’s protest came after a Brandenburg water association on Thursday warned against “extensive and serious problems with the drinking water supply and wastewater disposal” for the proposed factory.
Anne Bach, a 27-year-old environmental activist, said Tesla’s plans published earlier this month showed it would need more than 300 cubic meters of water per hour which would drain the area’s declining reserves.
“I am not against Tesla … But it’s about the site; in a forest area that is a protected wildlife zone. Is this necessary?” Bach said.
“In such an ecological system like the one here and with the background that climate is changing, I cannot understand why another location was not selected from the beginning,” said Frank Gersdorf, a member of “Citizens’ Initiative Gruenheide against Gigafactory”, a local group that organised Saturday’s protest.
Environmentalist protests in Germany have previously halted and delayed major companies’ plans such RWE’s lignite mining at the Hambach forest, near Cologne, which has become a symbol of the anti-coal protests.
Saturday’s protest, which Gersdorf and Bach said developed spontaneously from a 50-people forest walk demonstration, highlighted the deforestation of around 300 hectares to build the factory and its impact on wildlife, including birds, insects and bats.
People were also protesting against an expected “enormous” increase in traffic on a nearby highway and through the villages.
Next to the protest, on the other side of the street, around 20 people carried banners welcoming Tesla in their village, with children chanting, “We are here, we are loud, because Tesla is building our future.”
Bernd Kutz, a Gruenheide local, said Tesla would bring improvement to the area, create jobs and give chances to young people.
“I am here because I don’t understand those demonstrators who shout and show us the finger,” Kutz said. “Why has it always to be negative?”
(Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; editing by Christina Fincher)
‘You’re stealing our water’: Germans protest against Tesla gigafactory Demonstrators hold anti-Tesla posters during a protest against plans by U.S. electric vehicle pioneer Tesla to build its first European factory and design center near Berlin
MONTREAL/WINNIPEG (Reuters) – Canada’s longest railroad strike in a decade ended on Tuesday as Canadian National Railway Co reached a tentative agreement with workers, but shippers warned it could take weeks before service bounces back to normal.
Industry groups celebrated the end of the eight-day strike at the country’s biggest railroad, which had cost them sales and raised their expenses. News of the deal, which must still be ratified by union members, sent CN shares up by as much as 2%.
Thousands of unionized workers began heading back to their jobs, CN said, with operations expected to be in full swing on Wednesday. Union members should vote on the deal within eight weeks.
CN has rescinded 70 temporary layoff notices at an auto shipment terminal in Nova Scotia following the deal, another union said.
Canada relies on CN and Canadian Pacific Railway to move crops, oil, potash, coal and manufactured goods to ports and the United States.
Details of the agreement were not available but some 3,200 striking conductors and yard workers had been demanding improved working conditions, including rest breaks.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged CN and union officials in a tweet on Tuesday and thanked workers, industry and all Canadians for their patience.
Trudeau’s minority government had faced pressure from industry and farmers to end the strike and force workers back to their jobs.
Transport Minister Marc Garneau told reporters on Tuesday that if Ottawa had intervened with legislation, “we would not have had a solution today.”
Teamsters Canada President Francois Laporte noted the federal government “remained calm and focused.” CEO of Montreal-based CN J.J. Ruest thanked customers for their patience.
About half of Canada’s exports move by rail, according to industry data, and the strike would likely cost the Canadian economy less than C$1 billion ($750 million) and cut fourth-quarter growth by about 0.1 percentage point, Brian DePratto, a senior economist at TD, said.
PROPANE SHORTAGE TO PERSIST
The Canadian Propane Association warned severe shortages of the fuel in several eastern Canadian provinces could last weeks. “We need to get the inventory back up,” said association President Nathalie St-Pierre, noting the “crisis” was not over.
Garneau said CN will work quickly to clear the backlog, but added the process is complex and would take time.
Bob Masterson, chief executive of the Chemistry Industry Association of Canada, said some plants had slowed production during the strike.
Based on past rail disruptions, he said CN is likely to move critical commodities first, like propane for farms and homes and chlorine for drinking water, leaving other shippers to face delays.
PAIN FOR MINERS, FARMERS
Brendan Marshall, a vice president with the Mining Association of Canada, said miners faced hefty costs due to lost sales and plant disruptions. He said restoring normal operations could take a week for every day of disrupted service.
“Now we can hope that things can get back to normal in quick fashion. It’s cost a lot of money to farmers already,” said Markus Haerle, chairman of the Grain Farmers of Ontario. Wet conditions have stalled the harvest across much of Canada, including much of Haerle’s corn crop near St. Isidore, Ontario. Those crops must be dried before they can be sold, but the rail strike held up deliveries of propane, forcing farmers to use costlier alternatives.
(Reporting by Allison Lampert in Montreal and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg. Additional reporting by Kelsey Johnson in Ottawa, writing by Steve Scherer, editing by Louise Heavens, Steve Orlofsky and David Gregorio)
FILE PHOTO: Railcars stand idle at the CN railyards in Edmonton
MILAN, Nov 6 (Reuters) – Alitalia’s administrators said they had no preferred option between Delta Air Lines and Lufthansa, the two groups talking with rail operator Ferrovie dello Stato about a rescue for the troubled Italian carrier.
Ferrovie, which is leading a state-orchestrated effort to rescue Alitalia, will have to choose between the two foreign carriers in the next weeks as the financial performance of Alitalia was deteriorating, the administrators said.
“We do not have any preference about the industrial partner for Alitalia, we are unbiased,” Daniele Discepolo, one of the three administrators in charge of the airline told a parliamentary hearing.
Delta and Lufthansa belong to rival respective airline alliances and are both interested in the lucrative Italian market, one of the world’s top tourism destinations which is seeing good growth in foreign visitors.
Lufthansa wrote to Ferrovie recently offering a commercial partnership with Alitalia and saying it could take a stake in the carrier under certain conditions to be agreed with other partners.
The German carrier, however, has so far refrained from indicating precisely how much it was prepared to pay and under what conditions. In the letter Lufthansa only said it could invest more than Delta, which, so far, has committed around 100 million euros ($111 million) for Alitalia.
Discepolo and fellow administrators Enrico Laghi and Stefano Paleari said the government’s planned grant of a fresh 400 million euros bridge loan was needed to keep Alitalia’s airplanes flying until the rescue was successfully finalised.
The state has already granted a 900 million euro loan for the carrier and analysts calculate that Italian taxpayers have spent more than 9 billion euros to support Alitalia, which has undergone two previous failed rescue attempts.
Paleari said Alitalia’s earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) were negative to the tune of 164 million euros in the first half of this year, worsening from a 124 million euro loss in the same period last year partly due to higher fuel costs.
