Sustainable Aviation – The need for a European environmental aviation charge

Aviation contributes 12% of the global CO2 transport emissions. With a business as usual policy, emissions are expected to triple over the next 15 years, as compared to1990. These predictions for future emissions of the aviation sector are not in line with sustainable development.

Against this background the Netherlands Society for Nature and Environment, in close cooperation with T&E, has started a research project into the feasibility of a European Environmental Aviation Charge. The results were published in March 1998.

In this policy paper, T&E describes the global environmental problems of aviation,and asks the question “When is aviation ecologically sustainable”. It then looks at the role of different actors in society, and the policy instruments available for authorities. It describes the results and the conclusions of the above mentionedresearch and gives recommendations for a policy aimed at an ecologically sustainabledevelopment of the aviation sector.