Exercise 1. Answer the following questions

1. Can ethanol be used as a fuel?

2. What are the disadvantages of using ethanol as a fuel?

3. What are the two significant benefits brought by the use of turboprop aircraft for commuter flights?

4. What does the ninth report of the House of Commons Environmental Audit Select Committee, published in July 2006, recommend?

5. What is the role of ICAO in this process?

Exercise 2. Say whether the following statements are true or false. Correct false statements.

1. The majority of the world's aircraft are not large jetliners but smaller piston aircraft, and many are capable of using ethanol as a fuel, with major modifications.

2. While ethanol also releases CO2 during combustion, the plants cultivated to make it draw that same CO2 out of the atmosphere while they are growing, making the fuel closer to climate-change-neutral.

3. An alternative method for reducing the environmental impact of aviation is to contain demand for air travel.

4. As part of that process the ICAO has endorsed the adoption of an open emissions trading system to meet CO2 emissions reduction objectives.

5. Guidelines for the adoption and implementation of a global scheme are currently being developed, and will be presented to the ICAO Assembly in 2011, although the prospects of a comprehensive inter-governmental agreement on the adoption of such a scheme are uncertain.

Exercise 4. Finish the sentences.

1. A study published by the campaign group Aviation Environment Federation (AEF) concludes that by levying £9 billion of additional taxes, the annual rate of growth in demand in the UK for air travel would be reduced to...

2. Guidelines for the adoption and implementation of a global scheme are currently being...

3. The only problem is the US government's choice of using ethanol from corn, since it takes more energy to produce than is returned, it displaces food crops and thus raises the price of food, and causes...

4. An alternative method for reducing the environmental impact of aviation is to constrain demand for...

5. They often burn considerably less fuel per passenger mile, and they typically fly at lower altitudes, well inside the tropopause, where there are no concerns about...

Exercise 5. Make up your own sentences using the following terms:

climate-change-neutral fuel, allocation of emissions, emissions trading system, fuel efficiencies, ethanol, long-haul or transoceanic flights, the House of Commons Environmental Audit Select Committee