The European Commission will present its proposals on Friday 3 February on what to do about the greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme (ETS) in light of its assessment of the agreement with the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) reached in October 2016 on a global market-based measure (GMBM) to address the sector’s CO2 emissions (see EUROPE 11645 and 11641).
To judge from indications given by the Commission work programme and by Climate Action Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete, it seems likely that the European Commission will propose keeping the ETS as it currently stands – that is to say, affecting only intra-European flights – until 2020 and that it will await the outcome of the technical negotiations at ICAO before offering those countries taking an effective part in the market-based measure in 2021 a better deal than those not taking part.
The system approved by ICAO seeks the carbon-neutral growth of the international air transport sector from 2020, notably by using other sectors in a scheme known as CORSIA (carbon offset and reduction scheme for international aviation) to offset aviation emissions. Participation in this scheme will be voluntary until 2027.
In its work programme, the Commission has indicated that the measure it will propose will implement CORSIA. More recently, the Maltese Presidency of the Council of the EU told MEPs on the Parliament’s environment committee that the ICAO agreement would form the basis of amendment of the ETS (see EUROPE 11645).
Keeping intra-European flights in the ETS is the very least that MEP Peter Liese (EPP, Germany) is hoping for. Liese is his group’s coordinator and was the rapporteur on the inclusion of aviation in the ETS in 2012 and then the “stop the clock” regulation, which extended until the end of 2017 the exemption for inter-continental flights in order to avoid the ire of third countries and put pressure on ICAO to make progress in its efforts. “The EU ETS must be maintained for the coming years, at least for intra-European flights, as is currently the case. The market-based measure approved by ICAO last year is merely a step in the right direction. It is not enough and is far from allowing the two degrees' target set in the Paris climate agreement to be met”, he told a small group of journalists in Brussels on Wednesday 1 February.
CORSIA does not set any emissions reduction target and is voluntary until 2027. Carbon-neutral growth permits the purchase of allowances from 2020. The ETS is binding and sets the sector a 5% emissions reduction target (a target which the environment committee would like to increase to 10%, as it called for in the vote on the long-term reform of the ETS). In view of the doubts over the participation of Donald Trump’s America and Russia in the ICAO system and China’s ambivalent stance (it will take part in the system from 2021 but will not apply carbon-neutral growth), Liese said that he, personally, believed that “we need to know which third countries will take part in CORSIA before, if necessary, considering including inter-continental flights in the ETS” as was initially planned. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)