Organisation wants Europe to adopt multi-industry market approach to achieve reduction in greenhouse gases
Emissions trading is the best way for Europe to meet its Kyoto treaty targets, but only with the right trading formula and if airlines take part in a multi-industry emissions market, says the International Air Transport Association.
The organisation criticises the European Parliament's proposal for airlines to have a "closed, aviation-only" emissions trading scheme, arguing that this would not be effective if the objective is an overall reduction in Europe's global warming gas emissions.
IATA chief economist Brian Pearce argues that if governments want to cut emissions rather than raise taxes that "make the polluter pay", they should approve a system in which airlines can buy allowances from industries that emit more CO2 and have a greater potential to reduce production of this greenhouse gas while incurring a lower unit cost of doing so.
The formula Pearce suggests is a system in which each emissions-producing sector - or individual business - has a capped allowance in tonnes of CO2, and if it needs to emit more, it must purchase "permits to emit" from companies/sectors that have earned them by cutting emissions, or which have not used all their capped allowance.
Aviation's problem, says Pearce, is that European airlines mostly own modern fleets in which most of the fuel efficiencies that can be made have been, so further advances can only be small and high-cost. He contrasts this with other sectors, such as heavy industry, power generation and residential energy use, where the technologies that can reduce emissions are relatively cheap per tonne of CO2 cut. Not only is this cheaper to do, says Pearce, but since these sectors emit far more than aviation does, the potential benefits are greater.
Surface transport is a far greater total emitter of CO2 than aviation, says Pearce, but, like aviation, the cost of cutting each tonne of emissions is high. He says attempts to force cuts in the sectors where it is most expensive harms the European economy as a whole.
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Single sky is the holy grail IATA operations director Juergen Haacker says aviation will see 20% cuts in average fuel burn per seat kilometre in the next decade just through technology. The greatest potential emissions savings immediately available are those that involve government approval to enable airports to operate more efficiently in ground movements, and air navigation service providers (ANSP) to straighten air routes, reduce holding and other forms of delay, and develop fuel-efficient arrival and departure procedures in terminal areas. The holy grail for Europe, says Haacker, is the Single European Sky, which would unify a system at present split among 34 separate ANSPs that is so inefficient that it caused 15 million minutes of flight delay in 2005. Globally, IATA plans for improving air routes - if approved by the national authorities - have the potential to save 6 million tonnes of CO2 a year, says Haacker. |
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Source: Flight International
