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BERLIN – A group in the aviation industry, representing most major airlines, criticized the European Parliament on Thursday for seeking to expand its emissions trading system to all flights departing from the bloc.
EU lawmakers voted Wednesday that existing requirements for airlines to buy credits for greenhouse gas emissions from their flights should be expanded to include all those leaving the 27-nation bloc, Norway and Iceland. These rules apply only to flights within this area.
The International Air Transport Association warned on Thursday that such a move could undermine a separate international agreement known as CORSIA, which allows airlines to buy credits to offset their emissions. However, critics say the system is not effective enough.
IATA, which claims to represent about 290 airlines, which account for more than 83% of global air traffic, said expanding the EU’s emissions trading system as planned would also cause “serious distortions of competition and weaken global competitive position of EU airlines and hubs. ”
“This decision by the European Parliament is worrying because it jeopardizes international cooperation to tackle the effects of aviation climate change,” IATA Director-General Willie Walsh said in a statement.
He called on EU countries to reject the plan and commit to negotiating a global agreement on aviation emissions.
The European Parliament’s decision, part of a package of climate measures voted by lawmakers, including plans to ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines from 2035, was welcomed by environmentalists.
Joe Darden, aviation director of the Brussels-based Transport and Environment Group, said the EU vote was “a big step forward in tackling highly polluting long-haul flights”.
The group also welcomes the EU’s plans to monitor the climate impact of water vapor emitted by aircraft – white lines in the sky known as tracks – and to speed up the abolition of free emission allowances for airlines.
EU airlines currently receive more than half of their carbon credits free of charge, but this had to be stopped by 2027. European lawmakers voted to move the deadline to 2025.
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