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The slogan for today's (June 5^th) World Environment Day, is "Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy," and the call from the United Nations Environment Programme, recognising that climate change is becoming the defining issue, is for countries, companies and communities to focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

British Airways has been taking steps to limit its impact on climate change for longer than any other airline and is the only airline in the world to have participated in a carbon emission trading scheme.

The company's recent decision to replace its current sales force fleet with hybrid environmentally friendly vehicles demonstrates its desire to look at all areas of its business when considering the environment.

A decade ago, British Airways became the first airline to recognise the importance of environmental performance by setting a target to achieve a 30 per cent improvement in fuel efficiency by 2010.

By the end of last year, British Airways had achieved a 28 per cent improvement, preventing the release into the atmosphere of an additional 60 million tonnes of CO_2.

The decision by British Airways - the UK's flagship carrier which operates 49 weekly services from the GCC to London Heathrow - to limit its impact on climate change by placing an order for over one hundred Honda Civic Hybrid environmentally friendly vehicles is the airline's latest step in this direction.

They will replace the current fleet of cars used by the airline's sales force and will help reduce its carbon dioxide (CO2) emission by more than a third. The airline's decision to replace the fleet with hybrid models was spearheaded by the company's Chief Executive, Willie Walsh, and Chairman, Martin Broughton who realised the major benefits these vehicles could deliver.

Gary Meades, Environmental Manager British Airways, said: "Taking a responsible approach to environmental issues remains a critical part of British Airways' business performance and is at the core of everything we do." He added: "Addressing all areas of environmental impact in the way we have done with the Civic Hybrid illustrates the seriousness with which we view our environmental performance."

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About British Airways

British Airways has improved its fuel efficiency by 28 per cent since 1990 saving a total of 60 million tonnes of C02. It has recently set a further 25 per cent improvement in fuel efficiency by 2025.

British Airways is the only airline in the world to have participated in a carbon emissions trading scheme. During this time the airline reduced C02 emissions by 23 per cent.

British Airways is the first airline to offer customers the chance to offset their flight emissions and have redesigned the scheme to make it more user-friendly.

Aviation is playing its full part in controlling its CO2 emissions, but its share of global emissions is small - less than two per cent. Road transport contributes six times more and power generation 16 times more.

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