ELFAA welcomes EU Parliament’s Decision on the Climate Change
Published on
As from the latest presser sent by ELFAA - European Low Fares Airline Association -, it sounds that the EU institutions finally managed to make everyone happy. Or maybe just almost everyone. Because when a lobby such this one celebrates, well, I start feeling a bit less secure.
ELFAA welcomes the compromise agreement
reached between the EU Presidency and the Parliament, as part of the Climate
Change Package, not to change their earlier agreement of June 2008 but to retain a
separate scheme for aviation in the EU ETS.
The compromise agreement of June 2008 led to a design for the aviation scheme,
which was demanding yet took account of the need for airlines to continue to invest in
new technology to further improve their environmental performance.
While an ETS cap and trade scheme offers an incentive to airlines to improve their
environmental efficiency, auctioning does nothing to enhance the environmental
effectiveness of ETS for aviation, there being no possibility of windfall profits. ELFAA
sees no justification for any auctioning for aviation in ETS and is pleased to note that
the compromise agreement has resisted the calls for progressive increases in
auctioning of aviation allowances.
The auctioning of 15% of aviation allowances, together with a cap of 97% for 2012,
reducing, from 2013 onwards to 95% of actual emissions in 2004-06, is highly
ambitious and will require many airlines to purchase more than 15% of allowances.
To make a real environmental contribution, it is clearly vital that all flights into and out
of the EU be captured. The removal of the risk of progressive increases in auctioning
will make EU ETS more saleable to third countries, reducing the risk of legal
challenge.