EU Tells Airlines to Pay for Emissions

An important announcement yesterday in the contining battle between the EU and the airline industry over curbing CO2 emissions.

Ministers have agreed that “all airlines arriving or leaving from airports in the European Union would be required to buy pollution credits beginning in 2012, joining other industrial polluters that trade in the European emissions market. That includes non-European carriers like American Airlines and Singapore Airlines.”

The International Herald Tribune reports that “Pollution permits granted to airlines would initially be capped at 97 percent of their average emissions for 2004-2006. From 2013 the cap would drop to 95 percent.Eighty-five percent of those emission certificates will be allocated for free, while the rest will be auctioned. Airlines that want to fly — and pollute — more will buy more permits.”

These are incredibly difficult times for airlines with expected global losses of up to $6bn this year and job losses mounting all the time as oil prices climb above and beyond $143 a barrel and market demand slows down because a wider economic downturn and the impact of hefty fuel surcharges. So might might argue with the timing of this decision (designed to be phased in over the next four years) even if one agrees with the basic sentiment of making the airlines bear some of the external costs of the CO2 emissions they create.

More here from the New York Times