The EU, however, decided to limit the scope of the EU ETS to flights within the EEA until 2016 to support the development of a global measure by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The European Court of Justice has confirmed that this approach is compatible with international law.
The legislation, adopted in 2008, was designed to apply to emissions from flights from, to and within the European Economic Area (EEA) – the EU Member States, plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. In addition to market-based measures like the ETS, operational measures – such as modernising and improving air traffic management technologies, procedures and systems – also contribute to reducing aviation emissions. The system has so far contributed to reducing the carbon footprint of the aviation sector by more than 17 million tonnes per year, with compliance covering over 99.5% of emissions. They receive tradeable allowances covering a certain level of emissions from their flights per year. Under the EU ETS, all airlines operating in Europe, European and non-European alike, are required to monitor, report and verify their emissions, and to surrender allowances against those emissions. Aviation in EU Emissions Trading SystemĬO 2 emissions from aviation have been included in the EU emissions trading system (EU ETS) since 2012. The aviation sector will have to contribute to the reduction. To achieve climate neutrality, the European Green Deal sets out the need to reduce transport emissions by 90% by 2050 (compared to 1990-levels). Overall, the significance of combined non-CO 2 climate impacts from aviation activities, previously estimated to be at least as important as those of CO 2 alone, is now fully confirmed by the report. A November 2020 study conducted by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) looks into the non-CO 2 effects of aviation on climate change, and fulfils the requirement of the EU Emissions Trading System Directive (Art. Someone flying from Lisbon to New York and back generates roughly the same level of emissions as the average person in the EU does by heating their home for a whole year.īefore the COVID-19 crisis, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) forecasted that by 2050 international aviation emissions could triple compared with 2015.Īviation also has an impact on the climate through the release of nitrogen oxides, water vapour, and sulphate and soot particles at high altitudes, which could have a significant climate effect.If global aviation were a country, it would rank in the top 10 emitters.The aviation sector creates 13.9% of the emissions from transport, making it the second biggest source of transport GHG emissions after road transport. In the EU in 2017, direct emissions from aviation accounted for 3.8% of total CO 2 emissions. However, these environmental benefits have been outpaced by a sustained growth in air traffic, with passengers in 2017 flying on average 60% further than in 2005. For instance, the amount of fuel burned per passenger dropped by 24% between 20. Policy actions and the efforts of industry have led to improvements in fuel efficiency over recent years. The open public consultation on the legislative initiative is open until 14 January 2021. The Inception Impact Assessment (Roadmap) on the legislative initiative was open for feedback until 28 August 2020. The package proposes to revise several pieces of EU climate legislation, including the EU ETS, Effort Sharing Regulation, transport and land use legislation, setting out in real terms the ways in which the Commission intends to reach EU climate targets under the European Green Deal.
On 14 July 2021, the European Commission adopted a series of legislative proposals setting out how it intends to achieve climate neutrality in the EU by 2050, including the intermediate target of an at least 55% net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Revision of the EU ETS Directive concerning aviation The EU is taking action to reduce aviation emissions in Europe and working with the international community to develop measures with global reach. Aviation is one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions.