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Environment: Air Travel Tax Gets 'Green' Support

Posted on: Friday, 30 September 2005, 00:00 CDT

By Magda Fahsi

BRUSSELS, Sep. 29, 2005 (IPS/GIN) -- Leading green groups are backing new European Commission proposals for an "environment tax" to make airlines pay for the pollution they cause.

Aircraft are a leading source of carbon dioxide emissions, one of the principal "greenhouse gases" known to cause a warming of the atmosphere, leading to a disruption of climate patterns.

According to figures from the Commission (the European Union's executive body), the European Union's greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation increased by 73 percent from 1990 to 2003. If growth continues at this rate, the increase since 1990 will reach 150 percent by 2012.

This growth would offset more than a quarter of the emission reductions the European Union (EU) is required to make under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change. That protocol, signed in Kyoto in Japan in 1997, binds industrial countries to cutting emissions by at least 5.2 percent relative to 1990 levels. The first implementation period for the Kyoto protocol is 2008-2012.

Carbon dioxide emissions from domestic flights in Europe are subject to emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol but international flights are not. The Commission plan presented Tuesday recommends that all aircraft operators be included in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

Under this plan industrial operators have the right to emit a certain level of carbon dioxide per year. If they anticipate that their emissions will exceed their allowances, they can either take measures to reduce emissions or buy additional emission allowances on the market.

Conversely, if their actual emissions are lower than their allowances, they can sell their surplus allowance on the market or "bank" it to cover future emissions.

The ETS, which started Jan. 1, covers about 11,500 industrial installations.

Under the Commission's plan, the ETS would be extended to apply to all carriers operating in Europe without regard to nationality. To the extent that they operate from airports in the European Union (EU), foreign airlines would be included in the same way as EU airlines.

"There is a growing consensus in the aviation sector that emissions trading represents the best way forward to cut greenhouse gas emissions," commissioner for transport Jacques Barrot told media representatives Tuesday. Alternative ideas considered included a levy on individual tickets, a departure tax and emission charges.

"There is no reason to prolong uncertainty; it is clearly time to decide and act," a group of environmental non-government organizations wrote to European commissioners in support of the Commission plan. They are the European Federation for Transport and Environment, Climate Action Network Europe, European Environmental Bureau, European Public Health Alliance Environment Network, International Friends of Nature, Friends of Earth Europe, Greenpeace, CEE Bankwatch Network and the WWF European Policy Office.

"The Commission has been considering pros and cons of different climate policies for aviation since 1999 when the first study on the matter was published," they said. "So far the only policy has been to keep all options open. ... A clear choice has to be made now."

They called the Commission plan "a first and necessary step" and asked it to "issue a concrete legislative proposal to tackle the climatic impact of aviation as soon as possible."

Tackling emissions caused by aviation is more than a matter of urgency for the environment, they said. Aviation already accounts for 5 percent to 12 percent of the European Union's impact on the climate. Air travel is the fastest-growing source of greenhouse gas emissions.

"The boom in flying is bringing with it a rapid rise in greenhouse gas emissions," environment commissioner Stavros Dimas told media representatives Tuesday. "Extending emissions trading to the aviation sector will limit these emissions and ensure that aviation, like all other sectors, contributes to reducing harmful greenhouse gases."

The European Federation for Transport and Environment, an umbrella group for non-governmental organizations working in the field of transport and the environment, also says the Commission's plan is only a first step in the right direction. "It is better than nothing but it is clearly not enough," a spokesperson told IPS.

"This plan is not going to give the airline companies any real incentive to reduce their gas emissions since they can buy additional emission allowances on the market if they need to," he said. "We need a more general package that includes other measures like fuel taxation or on-route emission charges."

The Association of European Airlines welcomed the proposal conditionally.

"Our first reaction is fairly positive," information manager David Henderson told IPS. "The biggest problem for us though is that the Commission's plan seems to apply to all flights from and into the EU. We would prefer it to be limited to intra-European flights."

The Commission figures that its proposals would raise the average cost of a return flight by $11. "We would have liked to see the assumptions behind this and the details behind the calculations," Henderson said.

The Commission's recommendation must now be turned into a formal legislative proposal, which will need the approval of the EU member states and the European Parliament. This process typically takes two to three years.

Source: Global Information Network

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