Brussels, 08/07/2008 (Agence Europe) - Civil aviation was on the margins of the fight against climate change under the Kyoto Protocol but will make a contribution after 2012 with regard to intra-Community and international flights to and from the EU. The European Parliament decided this on 8 July with a formal approval by an overwhelming majority (640 for, 30 against, 30 abstentions) of the compromise in the second reading patiently negotiated between the Parliament, Commission and Council on the European directive to include civil aviation in the European Trading System (ETS) on greenhouse gas emissions (EUROPE 9695 and 9692).
This is a victory for the climate and Peter Liese (EPP-ED, Germany), the rapporteur, to whom all had paid homage for his mediation efforts, including MEPs who were unable to support the compromise which they regarded as being too watered down - they believed to be the Council's fault.
Mr Liese was delighted that from 2012, “flights will have to either make considerably fewer greenhouse gas emissions that harm the climate or buy licences to pollute, 15% of which will be on auction. Unity on this aviation dossier is an important sign on future negotiations on climate and energy, which are due to be finished by the end of the year. The rapporteur thinks it “revolutionary” that the ETS will cover not just EU airlines but all inter-continental flights taking off or landing in the EU because, “until now third countries were not included”. He stressed that this agreements is just a step towards the internal agreement the EU is desperately seeking as part of the OACI. The rapporteur concedes that, “for such an agreement we still need to wait and see what happens at the White House and whether a newcomer there will really treat climate change seriously”. He is confident that this will be the case for both candidates.
Linda McAvan (PES, UK) said that this agreement shows that Europe takes the fight against climate change seriously and that an agreement on climate and energy by the end of the year is possible.
Roberts Zile (UEN, Latvia) said that the agreement was a success from the date of aviation being included in ETS and the 3% reduction expected in emissions in 2012 (compared to the average in 2004-06), which will “allow airlines to continue to develop”.
Caroline Lucas (Greens/EFA, UK) said she was sorry not to be able to support the compromise, which was partly caused by the Council's intransigence. She said that even though Parliament had done its best to obtain an improved text compared to the Commission's initial proposal, it was a shame that the number of certificates up for auction fell and the objective of emission reductions was less than in other sectors.
Jens Holms (GUE/NGL, Sweden) pointed out the scale of climate change and the privileged position aviation had for being exempt from making any effort to combat it. He said that compromise was light years away from what they had been striving for but it went a little in the right direction thanks to the trading whose revenue would help fund climate friendly projects, particularly in developing countries.
Although emissions quotas annually allocated is higher than what parliament wanted and the share of trading reduced, Johannes Blokland (IND/DEM, Netherlands) is delighted with the, “improvement to the European Commission proposal” and says that it is, “a step in the right direction as part of climate and energy”.
Françoise Grossetête (EPP-ED, France), said that including aviation in ETS is a good thing but if Europe wanted to be competitive it was imperative that third country airlines were included. She warned that the compromise was indispensable for international negotiations in Poznan and Copenhagen but they needed to be, “very vigilant as to the use of trading revenue which should go to clean transport, research, and definitely not elsewhere, because the effects are particularly destructive and could hinder obtaining an international agreement”. Strengthen the fight against CO2 emissions by ensuring the simultaneous implementation of other policy chapters: the technological and single sky chapters should go together. Avril Doyle (EPP-ED, Ireland) rapporteur for revising the ETS directive in 2013 welcomed the agreement and said that climate challenges made exclusion of aviation and maritime transport unthinkable from efforts required.
Nathalie Kosciuslo-Morizet spoke on behalf of the French presidency of the Council and said that, “no compromise is perfect but it has to represent a balance between environmental demands and quality economic constraints”. She sees the agreement as a very strong signal and instrument to reach ambitious targets that they set for combating climate change.
Stavros Dimas, the Commissioner for the environment said that this agreement would allow aviation to contribute to Europe's climate targets. He was delighted with the results which he saw as, “a step forward, which underlines to our partners once again the EU's commitment to implementing the concrete measures needed to reduce emissions.” (A.N./trans.r.h.)