Emissionshandel f

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EU ministers advocate emissions trading
Monday December 5, 2005

European Union environment ministers on Friday reaffirmed their conclusion that aircraft emissions are "a serious and growing problem" and supported the European Commission's recommendation to include the industry in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ATWOnline, Sept. 28 ) as "the best way forward."The ministers urged the EC to bring forward a legislative proposal by the end of 2006 together with an assessment providing analysis of the environmental, economic and social impacts.

A 25-member Aviation Working Group set up by the EC will advise on incorporating the aviation sector into the ETS. According to the ministers, the objective should be to provide a workable trading model that "can be extended or replicated worldwide." They added, "In environmental terms, the preferred option is to cover all flights departing EU airports, as limiting the scope to intra-EU flights would address less than 40% of the emissions from all flights departing from the EU."

US FAA official Sharon Pinkerton said earlier last week that bringing transatlantic flights under the ETS could violate extant agreements, the Associated Press reported.

The ministers stressed that the Aviation Working Group also should, "in particular, address competition issues such as the impact on relative market shares of EU and non-EU carriers and minimizing distortions in the market." The EC estimated that "the impact on ticket prices will be modest, ranging between zero and an increase of up to €9 per return flight."

Separately, the Brussels-based International Air Carrier Assn. urged the EC not to ignore the potential financial impact the trading scheme might have on airlines. The ETS "should be designed in order to preserve the viability of an industry operating on tight margins," it said in a statement.

Originalbeitrag zu finden unter: http://www.atwonline.com/news/story.html?storyID=3289

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Walsh urges EC to move quickly to bring airlines into ETS
April 13, 2006

British Airways CEO Willie Walsh yesterday urged the European Commission to move forward with plans to bring EU airlines within the emissions trading scheme "as soon as the technical details can be resolved and political agreement reached."At the same time, he urged the EC to "go for simplicity." For example, the scheme should apply, "initially at least," to flights that start and end within the EU and not try to include non-EU flights, "which could delay implementation for years."

Speaking at Ireland's National Management Conference in Co Wicklow, Walsh also said the ETS should not attempt to address the upper atmosphere effects of aircraft, "on which there is little scientific consensus and which are not covered by the Kyoto Protocol." Initial carbon allocations to airlines should be based on their emissions performance, not an auction system.

He cautioned that regulators should not overestimate the environmental impact of commercial aviation. He said that based on recent calculations, the UK generates 2% of global CO2 emissions while "aviation, including international flights, is responsible for just over 5% of UK emissions." That means the total contribution of UK aviation to global emissions is around 0.1%. "In other words, if we took the most extreme policy option imaginable and banned all future domestic and international flights from the UK, the effect on global warming would be miniscule."

Turning to nonenvironmental topics, Walsh called for a third runway at London Heathrow to maintain the UK's competitiveness in world aviation and said it is "absolutely right" that the UK government should only permit the new runway as long as Heathrow's total noise footprint will not be greater than "in the baseline year of 2002 and local air pollution will not exceed strict new EU limits." He called those conditions "tough but achievable."

Originalbeitrag zu finden unter: http://www.atwonline.com/news/story.html?storyID=4706