European airlines to trade emissions allowances
New Scientist is reporting European airlines to trade emissions allowances.
The European Commission is expected to announce on Wednesday that air travel to, from and within Europe will be brought under its existing carbon trading scheme, putting pressure on airlines to curb their greenhouse gas emissions.
According to a leak reported in the Financial Times, the EC will say that emissions caps will apply to flights within the European Union from 2012 and be extended to include international flights from 2013.
This is a move seen by many to have been inevitable. Given the incredible damage the airline industry does to the planet it is critical to factor the cost of their pollution into the cost of tickets. It may not actually reduce the number of flights by much, but at least we are paying to have that damage repaired. It also puts more pressure on those Kyoto-laggards Australia and the USA who will be forced to participate in this scheme if they want to fly aircraft in and out of European ports. One wonders if this will apply to freight, or those special “extraordinary rendition” flights the CIA makes too, or if it’s only for commercial passenger flights. — DS
Technorati Tags: aviation, business, climate change, emissions trading, EU, global warming, Kyoto Protocol, politics, UK
