Brussels, 09/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission announced on Friday 9 July that it had approved a regulation allowing an instrument developed by Eurocontrol to be used by small aircraft operators to allow them to comply more easily with the requirements of European climate legislation in the EU emissions trading directive, known as the revised ETS directive.
The instrument enables operators to model the fuel consumption of their flights rather than require them to measure consumption of each flight, something that is of significant benefit to them since it will reduce the administrative burden on these small emitters.
“The development and approval of this tool to estimate the fuel consumption of small emitters is a good example of how European cooperation and a common, cost-effective approach can benefit both companies and the climate,” said European Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard in a press release.
The tool uses statistically robust fuel consumption coefficients for the majority of common aircraft types as well as widely recognised emission factors for all other aircraft. It meets the requirements of the monitoring and reporting guidelines for the EU ETS established by Decision 2007/589/EC.
The tool is available for so-called “small emitters”, aircraft operators responsible for a limited number of flights per annum or operators with a small amount of annual emissions of carbon dioxide. It can also be used by other aircraft operators to determine estimates of fuel consumption for specific flights where actual fuel consumption data is missing. (A.N./transl.rt)