SHOULD THE AVIATION INDUSTRY BE INCLUDED IN THE EMISSIONS TRADING PROGRAM (EU - ETS)?
Policy makers in the EU have taken steps to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions ever since the Kyoto protocol, but their ability to understand how such schemes would impact the aviation industry remains lackluster. Including the civil aviation industry in the Emissions Trading program is an excellent step towards a greener world, but policymakers must understand the underlying issues and deliver on its previous commitment of establishing the Single European Sky (SES) program before it implements such schemes.
The current policy stance of including the aviation industry in the scheme from 1st Jan 2013 must not be a way to side shift existing issues and potential problems with the scheme. In fact, some parts of the scheme are not well thought in terms of international law and are based on false forecasts.
The climate conference in Copenhagen was the last chance to discuss these concerns but unfortunately, the conference yielded nothing and aircraft operations were left waiting for policymakers to act on the SES Scheme.
· This brief calls for immediate action towards implementation of the SES initiative
· Steps towards development of multilateral and not just EU (unilateral) emissions trading scheme must be taken. All flights regardless of origin must be included in the ETS
· Allowance limits must take into account airline industry growth and oil price shocks
· Permit auctioning must be done in a fair manner
· There must be plans for the revenue generated from these permits purchases to invest in green and efficient technology for the aviation industry. So far it seems like the cash might just get pocketed by lobbyists
