The USA is warning that plans to bring all carriers operating within Europe into the continent’s emission trading scheme will face legal challenges.
The European Commission (EC) announced plans in September to include aviation in the existing European Union (EU) CO2 emissions trading scheme (ETS). The EC wants to include all flights departing from Europe, including those of non-EU carriers.
The USA, which has always been suspicious of European efforts to go it alone when it comes to environmental measures, has been a particularly vocal opponent of the proposal.
According to Carl Burleson, FAA environment and energy director, any such extension would raise legal issues in the US courts and others on the grounds that it violates the Chicago Convention ban on taxing aviation fuel or emissions.
He insists that the scheme should be tested first within Europe. Thereafter it could be used as a case study for ICAO, which is already working towards an international scheme for airlines.
The UK is keen to see the process to include aviation in the ETS initiated within the period of its presidency of the EC. Elliott Morley, climate change minister within the UK’s environment ministry says: “Emissions trading is a flexible alternative to direct regulation.”
Meanwhile, industry pressure group Greener by Design claims that advances in airframe and engine technologies will contribute to a drop in aviation emissions by 2050 to well below 2000 levels.
According to the group’s chairman John Green: “Relative to 2000 world fleet fuel burn and CO2 emissions per passenger kilometre in 2050 could be reduced by a factor of three, NOx emissions at altitude by a factor of 10 and contrail and cirrus cloud formation by a factor of between five and 15.”
JACKIE THOMPSON/LONDON
Source: Airline Business
