Making transport pay its true costs is back on the EU agenda, after the Commission opened a public consultation on internalising external costs that floats the idea that all transport could be part of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
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The Commission is currently working on an assessment of the impact of internalising external costs – effectively a strict application of the ‘polluter pays’ principle – as part of a European strategy it hopes to announce next summer.
The consultation document says including road, rail, sea and inland waterway transport in the ETS ‘could be envisaged’, albeit with different arrangements for each mode, such as having tradable credits for road transport but scarcity charges in rail and aviation.
The ETS is just one of several policy options. Others include taxes on pollutants and greenhouse gases, electronic charging for road use, noise charges for all transport, congestion charges, and congestion charging.
The consultation runs until 31 December.
This news story is taken from the November 2007 edition of T&E Bulletin.
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