• MEPs keep up pressure for meaningful aviation deal

    The European Parliament has challenged the Commission not to weaken the terms on which aviation enters the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme in a vote that calls for the existing proposals to be made stricter.

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    [mailchimp_signup][/mailchimp_signup]Last month’s vote of the full Parliament represents a mild watering-down of the position taken by its environment committee in October, but it still prompted the rapporteur Peter Liese to say: ‘The Parliament has made the plans more ambitious in environmental terms as well as more realistic as far as competition aspects are concerned.’

    Among the deviations from the Commission’s original proposal, MEPs

    • rejected the two-date entry of airlines and called for all flights into and out of the EU to be included from 2011 (the environment committee had wanted 2010 for both)

    • voted to set airlines’ emissions at 90% of 2004-06 levels (EC wanted 100%, committee wanted 75%)

    • supported the idea that 25% of all allowances in the first phase must be paid for by airlines via an auction process (EC wanted 3-5%, committee wanted 50%)

    • included a ‘multiplier’ of 2.0 to to address the non-CO2 impacts of aviation until NOx measures are implemented

    • called for trading restrictions to ensure aviation will really work towards reducing its emissions rather than just buying emission permits from other sectors.

    CLIMATE TARGETS

    T&E policy officer João Vieira said: ‘MEPs are saying clearly that the Commission’s proposals were too weak, and they have sent a strong signal to ministers that any weakening won’t be tolerated.’

    In a letter to the Financial Times newspaper, T&E and five other Brussels-based NGOs said failure by MEPs and environment ministers to strengthen the Commission’s proposals would ‘be to risk the EU’s credibility on the issue at a time when leadership is needed more than ever.’

    The MEPs’ vote was greeted with anger by the airlines’ umbrella organisation AEA. It said the scheme would ‘have a devastating effect, not only on financial stability but also on economic growth and tourism, while resulting in a barely measurable reduction in CO2 emissions globally.’

    The Parliament’s position will now be debated by EU environment ministers just before Christmas.

    This news story is taken from the December 2007 edition of T&E Bulletin.