Inclusion of aviation in the EU emissions trading scheme

23rd May, 2008

Position paper

In December 2006 the European Commission proposed a Directive for inclusion of aviation in the European Emissions Trading Scheme. Political agreement between the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers is required for the proposal to become law. A final decision is expected in July 2008.

While AEF does not believe that the emissions trading scheme alone can resolve the problem of aviation’s rapidly growing greenhouse gas emissions (and certainly cannot solve the problems of noise and local air quality), we do think it could be a useful first step in bringing aviation closer into line with European carbon reduction targets.

AEF has been campaigning at European level as part of a coalition of NGOs to try to make the scheme is as effective as possible in tackling aviation emissions. A position paper outlining our views on key aspects of the proposal is available here.