Question 22N.3.HL.TZ0.b
| Date | November 2022 | Marks available | [Maximum mark: 10] | Reference code | 22N.3.HL.TZ0.b |
| Level | HL | Paper | 3 | Time zone | TZ0 |
| Command term | Recommend | Question number | b | Adapted from | N/A |
The information that follows refers to the aviation industry, which is considered a significant contributor to global warming and climate change.
Table 2: Energy used and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for rail travel and air travel
______________________________________________________
1 joule: a standard unit of energy
2 passenger kilometre: one passenger travelling one kilometre
Table 3: Estimates of price elasticities of demand (PED) for leisure and business air
travel and estimates of income elasticities of demand (YED) for domestic
and international air travel routes
- The aviation sector creates emissions that account for about 4.9% of human made global warming and its share of greenhouse gas emissions is rapidly growing.
- A flight from San Francisco to Paris can produce around 1.25 metric tons of carbon emissions per passenger. This is more CO2 than the average person in certain countries generates in an entire year.
- The energy source for aircraft is not easily substitutable. Road and rail-based passenger vehicles can switch from carbon-based fuels to renewably sourced electricity. Aviation emissions are thus not expected to be easily reduced.
- The aviation industry’s growth has also accelerated as a result of subsidies, including general sales tax and fuel tax exemptions, which are unavailable to other modes of transport.
[Source: De Bruyckere, L., and Abbasov, F., 2016. Aviation ETS – gaining altitude - An analysis of the aviation EU ETS
2013-2015 [online] Available at: https://www.transportenvironment.org/sites/te/files/2016_09_Aviation_ETS_
gaining_altitude.pdf [Accessed 29 September 2021]. Source adapted.
Brajcich, K., 2020. What are Carbon Offsets and How Do They Work? [online] Available at:
https://sustainabletravel.org/how-carbon-offsets-work/ [Accessed 29 September 2021]. Source adapted.
Zeng, Youzhi & Ran, Bin & Zhang, Ning & Yang, Xiaobao, 2021. Estimating the Price Elasticity of Train Travel
Demand and Its Variation Rules and Application in Energy Used and CO2 Emissions. Sustainability. 13(2), 475.
Table 2 U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Department of Transportation and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, n.d.]
Using the text/data provided and your knowledge of economics, recommend a policy that may be implemented to reduce the contribution of emissions the aviation industry makes to global warming.
[10]
Refer to paper 3 markbands, available under “your tests” tab > supplemental materials.
Possible policies may include (but are not restricted to):
- Introduce carbon taxes in the aviation industry
- Cap & trade schemes on a wider (global) basis
- Impose indirect (sales) tax on air ticket purchases
- Eliminate fuel and other subsidies paid to airlines
- Subsidize rail and other greener forms of transport
- Enter into international agreements to reduce emissions from the aviation industry
- Ban short-haul flights
- Any other valid policy.
A range of approaches was adopted for the "policy question" although the majority of responses discussed the implementation of an indirect tax on air travel or a carbon tax on pollutants.
Responses which scored well mostly:
- Selected one clear policy.
- Explained clearly how the policy would affect the market for air travel and showed how this effect would impact the emissions which the aviation industry makes to global warming.
- Incorporated theory and appropriate terminology into the explanation.
- Used the data to support the policy and to provide evaluation — for example, the relative effectiveness of the policy for leisure vs business travel or the argument for subsidizing lower-emitting rail travel.
Responses were able to achieve full marks with a fairly concise answer which met these requirements. Diagrams (although not expected/required) were often used effectively to support the theory/explanation.
Candidates who did not score highly tended to demonstrate some of the following weaknesses:
- Outlining several policies while not explaining them in any detail.
- Writing a long introduction which explained the issue rather than concentrating on the policy.
- Neglecting to use the data provided to support the answer. Some candidates included data in a descriptive manner which did not help to justify the recommendation. For example, some candidates focused on specifying the problem (4.9% of global warming caused by the aviation industry) and reference to flights from San Francisco to Paris.
- Neglecting to provide a balanced synthesis. Many answers simply explained one or more ideas without any balance. For example, lower-achieving responses mentioned only that it is difficult to determine the exact size of tax which would ensure allocative efficiency — a fairly generic comment.
