WWW.FLIGHTGLOBAL.COM: International aviation's troubled date with Europe's Emissions Trading Scheme
By thisdell
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Carbon price collapse hits scheme
Tumbling market prices for carbon credits raise fears that a European trading scheme for airlines would fail because too many credits were issued - others see the surplus as proof that pressure to cut emissions across the economy was working. -
Aviation trading scheme "feasible"
The European Commission comes out in favour of including aviation in its emissions trading scheme from as early as 2007. Environmental groups vow to press European governments to act. -
USA: legal challenge likely
Carl Burleson, environment and energy director for the US Federal Aviation Administration, says the US view is that any extension of a European scheme to international carriers would be challenged by lawyers in the USA and other jurisdictions with stricter interpretations on the 1944 Chicago Convention’s ban on taxing aviation fuel or emissions. -
Emissions trading plan faces delay
The European Commission admits that US legal moves could delay aviation’s inclusion in the European Union’s carbon dioxide emissions trading scheme by two years, to 2009. -
Carriers to self-monitor emissions
A working group of stakeholders believe Europe's proposed emissions trading scheme would be most effective if airlines monitored their own emissions. -
MEPs get tough on emissions
The European Parliament votes overwhemlimingly in favour of polluter-pays emissions reduction measures that go much further than Brussels' proposals to include airlines in the European emissions trading scheme. -
Deadline 2012
The European Parliament's transport committee wants all civil aircraft flying into Europe to be included in the European Union emissions trading scheme from 2012, following a European Commission proposal to exempt international flight until that date. -
Europe declares aviation carbon war
Europe vows to go it alone on ETS, slamming ICAO for lack of leadership and rejecting its plan to make a emissions control an "aspirational goal". -
US election raises hope for emissions trading
George W. Buxh didn't want to know, but contenders for the Republican and Democratic nominations looked like accepting a cap and trading system. -
BA boss Willie Walsh calls for trading scheme
The British Airways boss underscores his support for the planned EU scheme - do nothing, he says, and traffic growth will outweigh any emissions savings that come through technology and improved operations. -
European parliament votes in favour of CO2 cuts
The European Parliament voted this week 640 to 30 in favour of requiring all airlines flying into community airports to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 3% in 2012 and by 5% from 2013. The vote was the final step to turn into law proposals to wrap international aviation into its existing emissions trading scheme, forcing all carriers to participate - including, controversially, non-European carriers. -
USA warns Europe to expect legal challenge
Air Transport Association of America weighs in, warning that US airlines are being told to comply with the rules under protest, reserving their legal rights until the controversial obligations to pay for carbon emissions are challenged. -
Congress considers US cap and trade scheme
Domestic cap and trade legislation making its way through the US House of Representatives could cost US airlines roughly $5 billion in 2012 and $10 billion in 2020, warns the Air Transport Association of America. -
Carriers prepare for first EU ETS deadline
US airlines that will be subject to the European Union's emissions trading scheme from 2012 are preparing for the first ETS deadline on 31 August - but say they will submit emissions monitoring plans "under protest" as they question the legality of the ETS. -
US House passes domestic cap and trade
The US House of Representatives voted in favour of creating a domestic cap and trade programme for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions on 26 June, paving the way for President Barack Obama's administration to achieve its goal of energy reform.
Final passage requires Senate approval, and if made into law as is, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 would limit emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2) between 2012 and 2050. -
Germany grants airlines ETS extension
Germany has become the second European Union member to postpone airlines' first emissions trading deadline following the UK. Airlines flying into EU airports are required to submit their emissions monitoring, reporting and verification plans to their assigned administering country by 31 August as the EU plans to fold aviation into its emissions trading scheme (ETS) from 2012. The delay comes as the European Commission has yet to issue finalised administering assignments. -
US Senate pushes for cap and trade legislation
The US airline industry has the same concerns about cap and trade legislation introduced today by US Senators as it does about the House climate change bill that passed earlier this year.
The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act "sad to say does not improve upon the [House] bill at all", Air Transport Association of America (ATA) VPof environmental affairs Nancy Young said today at the general meeting of the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) in Washington. -
US carriers officially challenge the EU's ETS
North American airlines are awaiting a response from the UK government to their legal challenge of the European Union's emissions trading scheme (ETS).
The Air Transport Association of America and three of its member carriers-United Airlines, Continental Airlines and American Airlines-have filed a lawsuit against the UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change to reverse aviation's forthcoming inclusion in the ETS. -
US ETS lawsuit likely headed to European Court of Justice
North American airlines await a UK court hearing to have their legal challenge of the European Union's emissions trading scheme (ETS) moved to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), which has jurisdiction over all EU member states. -
EU to press ahead with ETS despite ICAO global emissions framework
The International Civil Aviation Organisation's success at securing a global framework to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from aviation has done little to thaw European Union-US relations over the EU's plan to include the sector in its emissions trading scheme from 2012.
Under the framework, reached during ICAO's 37th Assembly in Montreal, its 190 member states signed up to a global goal of improving fuel efficiency by 2% a year until 2050. -
EU ETS to cost airlines €1.4b in 2012
Airlines will face a bill of up to €1.4 billion ($1.9 billion) when they are included in the European Union's emissions trading scheme (ETS) in 2012, rising to €7 billion in 2020, according to Thomson Reuters Point Carbon.
The analysis used to produce these figures is based on the European Commission's announcement yesterday that airlines will receive allowances to emit almost 213 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2012. -
MEP calls for moratorium on EU scheme
German Member of European Parliament Holger Krahmer is calling for a moratorium on the inclusion of aviation in the European Union's emissions trading scheme (ETS), and has warned that it could lead to Europe becoming the victim of an international "trade war". -
US lawmakers aim to make Europe's ETS illegal
Two US Congressmen, one a Democrat and the other a Republican, are leading a move to make participation by US carriers in the imminent European Emissions Trading Scheme illegal.
Their proposed bill is called "The European Union emissions trading scheme prohibition Act of 2011". -
US House committee passes bill against EU ETS
The US House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has approved a bill that will prohibit US carriers from taking part in the European Union's Emissions Trading scheme (EU ETS).
Called the EU ETS Prohibition Act of 2011, the bill was among several passed at a markup yesterday and directs the Secretary of Transportation to prohibit US airlines from taking part in the scheme, set to come into effect on 1 January 2012. -
EU aviation emissions scheme "complies with international law"
FLIGHTGLOBAL: Legal ruling on EU ETS expected soonInclusion of aviation in the European Union's emissions trading scheme is compatible with international law, concludes an initial opinion from a European Court of Justice advocate general. Airlines will have to acquire and surrender emission allowances for flight to and from European airports once aviation is included in the scheme from 1 January 2012.