Aviation and the Environment

In this week’s topic, we are discussing the EU ETS, or European Union Emissions Trading Scheme.  We are all aware that airplanes pollute the environment, and each year there is more concern over global warming.  What is the EU ETS all about?  How does it work?  And how will it make an impact on aviation?

The EU Emissions Trading Scheme was launched in 2005 in efforts to combat climate change.  Currently, it covers more than 11,000 factories and power stations in 30 countries.  Each year, these factories and power stations must monitor and report their CO2 emissions because leftovers are returned to the government.  Emission credits are given to each installation over several years, called a trading period. If the emissions exceed what is permitted by its credits, the factory can purchase trading credits from other installations or countries.  If the factory has reduced its emissions, it can sell the leftover credits for money or “bank” them to cover future emissions.  This encourages companies to develop new technologies to reduce carbon emissions.  By 2020, the EU ETS foresees a 21% reduction in greenhouse gases.

Under EU ETS, all airlines would have to buy allowances when flying into European airports or through European airspace.  The United States and other countries are heavily opposed to this.   Reason being, the tax would include flying over our own airspace, not just into Europe.  For example, the emissions being calculated would include the entire distance from New York to Paris, not just over European airspace.  China has gone as far as threatening to cancel Airbus orders because of this. 

The United States passed a bill preventing its airlines from participating in the EU ETS.  They are more focused on a global solution to reduce emissions, and would prefer to work through the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization).  The European Union announced that it would hold off on enforcing its law for one year to give the ICAO enough time to implement a global solution. 

The ICAO has made significant progress on standardizing aircraft CO2 emissions.  They have created an effective CO2 metric system.  It is a measurement of aircraft fuel burn performance and represents the CO2 emissions produced.  The CO2 metric system is based on three elements associated with aircraft design:

• Cruise point fuel burn performance;
• Aircraft size; and
• Aircraft weight

 

The purpose of the CO2 metric system is to reduce emissions by encouraging fuel efficient technologies into aircraft design.  Please click here for more information on the three elements which make up the CO2 metric system.  Because of this system, the CAEP (Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection) has moved one step closer towards developing an ICAO CO2 Standard.

I believe that a global solution is necessary to reduce aircraft emissions.  However, I feel that penalizing an airline by making them pay is the wrong solution.  ICAO has the right idea; we need to focus more on inventing new technologies to reduce CO2 emissions rather than turning this into a global marketplace.