(Brussels) Airlines will have to pay for CO emissions2 of their intra-European flights, with the disappearance of free quotas from which they have benefited so far, but international flights will remain spared, according to an agreement concluded on Wednesday in the EU.
The text, approved after long negotiations by MEPs and Member States, is part of the vast European climate plan. In addition to flights within the EU, it will also apply to flights between the EU and the United Kingdom or Switzerland, but excludes for the moment flights between Europe and the rest of the world, according to a press release from the European Council.
Intra-European flights are already subject to the carbon emissions quota market (ETS) where airlines can buy and exchange the “pollution rights” required to offset their emissions, like industrialists and energy companies.
But they have so far been offered free quotas covering most of their emissions to help them remain competitive against their foreign rivals.
A privilege that MEPs and Member States have decided to phase out over the next three years: 25% of these “free” allowances will disappear from 2024 and 25% more in 2025. They will be completely eliminated in 2026.
Part of the revenue collected from the sale of allowances will be transferred to the European Innovation Fund, to subsidize technologies beneficial to the climate.
A new mechanism will allocate free CO2 emission allowances2 in return for the adoption of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), allowing companies to partially offset the price difference with conventional kerosene.
This mechanism will be applied more generously in certain cases to help guarantee the supply of “green” fuels to small islands, small airports and outermost regions.
“We have found a good balance between climate ambition for airlines and support for this sector to make this transition, with a tangible tool to help it decarbonise”, observed MEP Suncana Glavak (EPP, right), negotiator for Parliament.
Conversely, the European association of airlines Airlines for Europe (A4e) said she was “extremely disappointed” with the planned disappearance of free allowances by 2026. By that date, decarbonization solutions will not be available on a large scale, she lamented in a press release.
Finally, according to the agreement, the companies will have, from 2025, to declare not only their emissions of CO2but also other polluting particles (nitrogen dioxide, soot, etc.) contributing to global warming, with a view to a possible tightening of EU regulations in 2028.
However, MEPs did not win their case on the inclusion of international flights departing from Europe: these will however be covered from 2022 to 2027 by the international carbon offsetting mechanism (CORSIA), in which airlines will be forced to buy “carbon credits” beyond a certain emissions threshold, the agreement specifies.
However, the Commission will have to examine after 2025 the effectiveness of this international mechanism, and, if it is deemed insufficient, prepare a proposal to subject these international flights to the EU carbon market.
By excluding international flights, the European agreement “ignores 58% of CO emissions2 European aviation […] We are about to lose a decade of climate inaction,” laments the environmental NGO Transport & Environment. According to her, the CORSIA system would “only cover 22% of total international emissions by 2030”.