Brussels - Europe's growing air-transport industry must do more to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions by joining the bloc's carbon trading scheme and start paying tax on jet fuel, European lawmakers say.
Air traffic is not part of the Kyoto Protocol that was adopted in 1997, which seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by industrialised nations by eight percent by 2012, compared to 1990 levels.
Air transport was exempted from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change under the condition that airlines seek ways to reduce emissions through a trading scheme by 2007.
But progress through the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), a U.N. body has stalled, leaving a Europe-wide scheme as the only realistic alternative.
Between 1990 and 2003, the European Union's international aviation emissions have increased by 73 percent, at an average of four percent a year. Although airlines currently account for a small greenhouse gasses European Union air traffic movements are set to more than double by 2020 and triple by 2030, according to Eurocontrol, Europe's air safety navigation agency.
At this rate the increased emissions from aviation will neutralise more then a quarter of the reductions required by the European Union Kyoto target by 2012.
Without strict and binding legislation, say European Union lawmakers, airlines could scupper global efforts to reverse climate change. The aviation industry should be made to take responsibility for its damaging emissions.
Air lines could pass the cost on to consumers, but a European Commission study put the maximum price increase at nine Euros ($11.50) for a flight to Australia for example.
The European Parliament is proposing a separate trading scheme for the air-transport industry entering the existing and already wobbly carbon trading exchange.
A European Parliament report recommends that the airline industry's exemption from paying Value Added Tax5VAT) on fuel should be scrapped, and says an additional fuel tax should be brought in. It would apply around the world. These measures would put up ticket prices, an unpopular measure at a time when low-cost air travel is booming.
The European Commission, on the other hand, favors a wide system within the existing trading scheme, arguing that the existing scheme seems to be working fine.
The European Union's carbon emissions trade market was set up in early 2005, providing a place where permits to pollute one ton of carbon dioxide can be brought and sold between Europe's main polluting industries, such as the energy sector.
The environment ministers of the European Union have endorsed in December of last year a European Commission proposal to include all airlines and European Union airports as part of Europe's key climate change strategy.
Either way, it could be difficult to get non-European Union airlines to comply.
Airlines have been lobbying members of the European Parliament, calling for a separate aviation Emissions Trading Scheme(ETS) only. But European airlines are fighting among themselves on how best to tackle their emissions.
The European Environment Agency says that increased CO2 emissions from international flights have cancelled out almost a quarter of the cuts made by other sectors. By 2050 the International Panel on Climate Change believes aviation will produce up to 15% of man-made global warming.
British Airways strongly supports an aviation emissions trading scheme after campaigning against alternatives such as tax on fuel.
British Airways does, however, want to restrict the scheme to European Union flights, initially, at least, leaving its lucrative transatlantic flights outside the scheme.
But the proposal is being threatened by some other European airlines led by Germany's Lufthansa, which are using their influence to block the European Union proposals. Lufthansa, says the scheme is flowed because it would put European airlines at a competitive disadvantage.
The German carrier claims that other ways of reducing emissions, such as modernising its fleet of aircraft and improving air traffic management, would have greater potential for reducing CO2 emissions.
Lufthansa also points to the need to reduce bottlenecks in the sky and cut the amount of time aircraft spend in holding patterns.
It estimates that more efficiency in air traffic management - in particular through the creation of what it calls a "single European sky" - managed by a single air traffic control authority - could reduce fuel consumption by twelve percent.
Israel Rafalovich
Please also see:
C&C - A Framework for the Future, by Aubrey Meyer
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=1058&blz=1
The Transport Industry and a Shift from Road to Rail, by Christiane Martens
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout1.php&id=14&blz=1
Air traffic is not part of the Kyoto Protocol that was adopted in 1997, which seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by industrialised nations by eight percent by 2012, compared to 1990 levels.
Air transport was exempted from the Kyoto Protocol on climate change under the condition that airlines seek ways to reduce emissions through a trading scheme by 2007.
But progress through the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), a U.N. body has stalled, leaving a Europe-wide scheme as the only realistic alternative.
Between 1990 and 2003, the European Union's international aviation emissions have increased by 73 percent, at an average of four percent a year. Although airlines currently account for a small greenhouse gasses European Union air traffic movements are set to more than double by 2020 and triple by 2030, according to Eurocontrol, Europe's air safety navigation agency.
At this rate the increased emissions from aviation will neutralise more then a quarter of the reductions required by the European Union Kyoto target by 2012.
Without strict and binding legislation, say European Union lawmakers, airlines could scupper global efforts to reverse climate change. The aviation industry should be made to take responsibility for its damaging emissions.
Air lines could pass the cost on to consumers, but a European Commission study put the maximum price increase at nine Euros ($11.50) for a flight to Australia for example.
The European Parliament is proposing a separate trading scheme for the air-transport industry entering the existing and already wobbly carbon trading exchange.
A European Parliament report recommends that the airline industry's exemption from paying Value Added Tax5VAT) on fuel should be scrapped, and says an additional fuel tax should be brought in. It would apply around the world. These measures would put up ticket prices, an unpopular measure at a time when low-cost air travel is booming.
The European Commission, on the other hand, favors a wide system within the existing trading scheme, arguing that the existing scheme seems to be working fine.
The European Union's carbon emissions trade market was set up in early 2005, providing a place where permits to pollute one ton of carbon dioxide can be brought and sold between Europe's main polluting industries, such as the energy sector.
The environment ministers of the European Union have endorsed in December of last year a European Commission proposal to include all airlines and European Union airports as part of Europe's key climate change strategy.
Either way, it could be difficult to get non-European Union airlines to comply.
Airlines have been lobbying members of the European Parliament, calling for a separate aviation Emissions Trading Scheme(ETS) only. But European airlines are fighting among themselves on how best to tackle their emissions.
The European Environment Agency says that increased CO2 emissions from international flights have cancelled out almost a quarter of the cuts made by other sectors. By 2050 the International Panel on Climate Change believes aviation will produce up to 15% of man-made global warming.
British Airways strongly supports an aviation emissions trading scheme after campaigning against alternatives such as tax on fuel.
British Airways does, however, want to restrict the scheme to European Union flights, initially, at least, leaving its lucrative transatlantic flights outside the scheme.
But the proposal is being threatened by some other European airlines led by Germany's Lufthansa, which are using their influence to block the European Union proposals. Lufthansa, says the scheme is flowed because it would put European airlines at a competitive disadvantage.
The German carrier claims that other ways of reducing emissions, such as modernising its fleet of aircraft and improving air traffic management, would have greater potential for reducing CO2 emissions.
Lufthansa also points to the need to reduce bottlenecks in the sky and cut the amount of time aircraft spend in holding patterns.
It estimates that more efficiency in air traffic management - in particular through the creation of what it calls a "single European sky" - managed by a single air traffic control authority - could reduce fuel consumption by twelve percent.
Israel Rafalovich
Please also see:
C&C - A Framework for the Future, by Aubrey Meyer
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout4.php&id=1058&blz=1
The Transport Industry and a Shift from Road to Rail, by Christiane Martens
http://www.unobserver.com/index.php?pagina=layout1.php&id=14&blz=1