Aviation emissions cost assessment 2008

31st August, 2008

The 2006 Air Transport White Paper Progress Report carried a commitment that the Emissions Cost Assessment (ECA) would provide a strategic view on whether the aviation sector is covering its climate change costs, thereby contributing to the evidence provided to inform decisions on major increases in aviation capacity. The Department for Transport (DfT) ran a consultation on the ECA which ended on 30 October 2007 and received 48 responses from various stakeholders.

At a DfT stakeholder meeting on 31 July 2008, a number of objections to the ECA were raised. Questions were asked about how such a low carbon cost could be justified, and why 100% of the value of Air Passenger Duty revenue was deemed to contribute to climate change cost, when it had been repeatedly stated during the meeting and by other Treasury spokespeople that APD was not solely an environmental tax.

For AEF’s response to the consultation, and a critique of the ECA by the AirportWatch economics group, see the second item in ‘A clutch of reports’.For the DfT’s summary of consultation responses, see www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/aviation/environmentalissues
/aviationemissionscostassess/