EU offers retreat on aviation emissions

Mixed reaction to news that negotiators have offered to back down from the bloc’s insistence on covering emissions outside EU airspace.

Reactions ranged from begrudging acceptance to outrage at a European Parliament event last night discussing an offer made by the EU yesterday (4 September) to back down on its insistence on including aviation emissions in its emissions trading scheme (ETS).

EU negotiators offered to limit the ETS scope during a high-level meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) yesterday. In exchange, the ICAO council agreed to a draft text in which they pledge to work toward reaching a global deal to reduce aviation emissions by 2016.

The 2016 deal would commit to starting, by 2020, one of three mechanisms for reducing aviation emissions. These include a global emissions trading scheme for aviation or carbon-offsetting.

The timetable agreement is subject to approval by the ICAO general assembly taking place 24 September to 4 October in Montreal.

Announcing the news at the Parlaiment green aviation event, Jos Delbeke, director general for climate action at the European Commission, acknowledged that the agreement is “far from perfect.” But he said the alternative was an endless stalemate of legal battles that risked the credibility of the ETS. The Commission is expected to come forward with a proposal for general reform of the system in October.

“If we would send the world home [without an agreement] in ICAO, where would we be on 4 October when we have to make our next step on ETS?” he asked.

Under the ETS Directive adopted in 2008, all emissions from aircraft landing or taking off from EU airports had to be offset through the purchase of emissions allowances, starting in January 2012. But the European Commission issued a one-year suspension of the rules for flights from outside the EU in November 2012 after complaints from the US, China and others that charging for the emissions of the entire flight was a breach of sovereignty.

Connie Hedegaard, EU commissioner for climate action, said this was to give ICAO time to agree a global deal. If no deal were reached by the end of 2013, she said, the foreign flights would again be included.

Many stakeholders at the event said the ICAO timetable agreement to reach a future deal is not firm enough to meet the bar set last November. “They named very specific conditions, and I don’t recognise any of them as having been fulfilled in what I’m hearing was agreed today,” said John Hanlon, secretary-general of the European Low Fares Airline Association. The association has already filed a lawsuit against the one-year suspension, saying it unfairly discriminates against European airlines, giving an advantage to their global competitors.

“Today’s decision has little to do with the environment, this is realpolitik on a grand scale,” said Bill Hemmings of campaign group T&E. “The Commission is declaring victory in the jaws of defeat.”

Changing the ETS scope to exclude non-EU airspace will require the approval of member states and the European Parliament. “I cannot say that I support the deal, I cannot say that the Parliament will support it,” said centre-right German MEP Peter Liese, who leads on the aviation issue in the European Parliament. “But I’m really concerned that if we just oppose what is on the table, we may see a total collapse of our efforts. That needs to be taken into account when you compare it to the more ideal situation.”

He went on to decry the fact that people in the Commission and member states had been “less passionate” in defending the EU law than MEPs were.

Paul Steele of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) gave a cautious welcome to the potential for an agreement, saying that while it wasn’t ideal, it removes what has been an enormous headache.

“The step we made today is not perfect, and it is not yet in the kitty,” cautioned Delbeke. “We could still lose it. That’s the wake-up call I would like to make to all of you who are making criticism. I’m the first one to understand where the criticism comes from, I think we had a long journey on ETS.”

Airspace concern

Environmental campaigners are concerned that, if the EU adopts an airspace approach, it could serve as a template for an eventual global arrangement. If ICAO were to adopt an airspace approach for a global deal on aviation emissions with the participation of every country, 78% of emissions would not be covered because they take place in international airspace. The International Air Transport Association, an industry body, has said that a global aviation deal on the basis of airspace would be an impracticable “nightmare”.  

If no timeline commitment is not reached at this month’s meeting, the EU offer will be torn up, leaving the entirety of non-EU flights set to be again subject to the EU ETS from 1 January, 2014.

A source close to the negotiations said the situation had become intractable, and that if the EU had stuck to its guns, foreign airlines would not have complied with the EU law. There has also been immense pressure on EU lawmakers from European aircraft maker Airbus, after China threatened to halt orders in response to the ETS inclusion.

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