Eco-Aviation Channel

EU to begin tracking aviation carbon emissions

By Cathy Buyck and Geoffrey Thomas
Eco-Aviation Today, March 10, 2009, p.1

The EU emissions trading scheme entered into force on Feb. 2, requiring all airlines landing or taking off in EU member states to pay for their carbon dioxide usage through CO2 allowances or carbon credits beginning in 2012. While member states have 12 months to draft the directive into national law, carriers need to lodge a plan that outlines the methodology of fuel burn versus payload data by the end of August.

The target set by the EU is for aviation to reduce greenhouse gases to 3% below the average of 2004-06 levels in 2012, increasing to 5% for the 2013-20 period. Estimates of the cost to international airlines in 2013 are around the $2.5 billion mark increasing to $3.5 billion by 2015.

Under the scheme, individual EU countries will be responsible for administering their own airlines as well as the international carries that fly into their country the most. The UK will oversee the most, about 780 aircraft operated by giants such as United Airlines and American Airlines down to a range of executive jet operators with single aircraft.

France will regulate 500 operators including airlines such as ANA, while Germany will manage 290 including Delta Air Lines and UPS. At the other end of the scale, Lativa will only monitor five operators.

While the EU has issued the ETS directive and devised a plan of implementation, airlines around the globe are planning challenges, as they regard the legislation as a breach of international law. Regardless, the UK government moved quickly to set up monitoring of the aviation ETS. The regulator will be the independent UK Environment Agency, which will have the power to issue fines to operators who do not comply with the scheme and even to confiscate aircraft.

Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon said in a statement: "The UK lobbied hard to get aviation included in the EU emissions trading scheme. Now we must demonstrate to the rest of the world that the scheme is an effective means of capping aviation CO2 emissions so that we can progress towards a similar global arrangement. I know that the Environment Agency, with the advice of the Civil Aviation Authority, will ensure that the scheme is properly enforced in the UK."

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