One of Britain's largest investment firms, Standard Life, which manages more than $1 billion in its Socially Responsible Investment funds, has begun classifying airlines alongside pornographers, cigarette makers and arms dealers.
All because of the tons of carbon dioxide produced by airplanes as they carry passengers back and forth.
A report in the Scotsman confirmed that the Edinburgh-based Standard Life will stop investing in carriers such as British Airways, Ryanair and EasyJet, and the move could prompt other fund managers to follow that path.
The decision was made by a team of managers along with several investors after the results of a survey of its investors came in, Julie McDowell, head of SRI at Standard Life, told the newspaper.
TRENDING: America's most dangerous demographic
"A panel of senior management and three ordinary investors made the decision based on feedback from the survey," she said. About 3,000 of the 39,000 investors in ethical funds participated in the survey, and almost 1,000 of those called for airlines to be blacklisted, officials said.
"For 17 percent of respondents to our survey, climate change was the top concern, while 53 percent saw it as one of their top three concerns," she said. "Interestingly, 91 percent of investors surveyed would prefer to invest in companies that are doing their best to reduce their climate-change impacts, whereas only 9 percent of investors felt that it was better to completely avoid investing in companies that are significant contributors to climate change."
The move puts airlines in the company of pesticides makers, testers of products on animals, intensive farming companies, pornographers, arms makers, brewers and tobacco producers.
An airline industry official, however, noted the number of flights between Scotland and London that are patronized by investment firm workers.
"The financial services industry itself relies so heavily on aviation to conduct its business, and we are sad to see it turn its back on airlines," Neal Weston of the British Air Transport Association told the newspaper. "The government has confirmed that the aviation industry covers its own environmental costs and that it is worth 11 billion pounds to the UK economy."
Dan Welch of Ethical Consumer magazine told the paper it would be better to target those flights "where emissions per passenger are much higher," such as private and charter flights.
The report said aviation accounts for 2 percent of carbon emissions worldwide, and about 13 percent of the UK emissions. But studies have indicated other methods of transportation produce a far higher percentage.
Andy Harrison, chief executive officer for EasyJet, told the paper his company's flights already release 27 percent fewer greenhouse gases that other airlines, but there's more to it than just the jets.
"There's a lot to be done – reforming Europe's inefficient air traffic system, implementing a meaningful European emissions trading scheme, working on the next generation of aircraft, giving customers comprehensive environmental information and helping them to offset the carbon emissions of their flight," he said.
Â
Â
Previous stories: