Getting to grips with emissions trading

1st June, 2009

For its next trick, the UK Government will cap aviation emissions while allowing them to carry on growing.

Now that European states have agreed to include emissions from international aviation in the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) from 2012, the UK government has taken to rebutting any suggestion that there might be a problem with aviation emissions by saying that even if these emissions carry on growing, from 2012 they won’t really be growing because the ETS has capped them. Confused?

In response to an inquiry this month about how a layperson can get to grips with this thorny area, we’ve tried to put together a readable document on what’s wrong with the ETS for aviation. It’s in the Emissions Trading section of our website. Let us know what you think.

Other recent inquiries have included a question about property damage from helicopter vibration, and about the Government’s decision to support the construction of a third runway at Heathrow airport.