The UK government is heading for all-out fast-track adoption of emissions trading legislation both at national and European level while other European Union nations are still determining exactly what impact aviation's entry into the world's largest carbon market will have on their national industries.
Speaking at a major two-day conference organised jointly by the European Civil Aviation Conference and the European Commission, and hosted by the Swiss transport ministry, a senior EC source told Flight International how the UK will seek to speed through the next legislative steps that will make the inclusion of aviation in the EU emissions trading scheme national law throughout 30 European states.
European ministers last month approved the inclusion of aviation in the trading scheme from 2012, but the directive will only enter force once it is published in the EU's Official Journal which is expected no later than February 2009.
"Most EU member states have up to 12 months from that point to transpose that directive into national legislation. Some nations have signalled, however, that they want to go through that process a lot more swiftly. The UK, for example, has said it would like to do it by as early as June," he said.
The UK also came under pressure from backbench lobbying to amend proposed UK climate-change legislation to include civil aviation emissions in greenhouse gas targets, effectively a U-turn since it had initially declined that course of action. Text of the bill must now receive the agreement of both the UK House of Commons and Lords before being accepted into law.
Source: Flight International
