BBC NEWS Europe Euro MPs debate air travel impact
Proposals to limit the impact of air travel on climate change will be debated by the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
Aviation is one of the fastest growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, but there is no tax on aviation fuel.
The UK predicts air travel will triple in the next 30 years.
The EU executive, the European Commission, is currently preparing legislation to reduce greenhouse gases from aviation.
The European Parliament is discussing the proposals, contained in a report, as Europeans queue up at airports to fly off on holiday.
The report recommends that the airline industry's exemption from paying Value Added Tax (VAT) on fuel should be scrapped, and says an additional fuel tax should be brought in. It would apply around the world.
Airlines must pay the environmental price, says UK MEP Caroline Lucas
An MEP from the UK's Green Party, Caroline Lucas, who drafted the report, says aviation must bear the costs of its environmental impact to level the playing field with other forms of transport.
But these measures would put up ticket prices, an unpopular measure at a time when low-cost air travel is booming.
Carbon trading
This is an "own initiative" report, meaning it carries no official weight.
However, the European Commission is preparing legislation on the same subject.
One possibility would be to bring the airline industry into the EU's emissions trading scheme, allowing less polluting airlines to trade their surplus allowances of greenhouse gases on the carbon market.
But the scheme, which covers factories and power stations, is already in trouble.
Many governments have issued too many carbon permits, giving polluters no incentive to cut their emissions.
The report before the European Parliament says there should be a separate scheme for airlines. Either way it could be difficult to get non-EU airlines to comply.
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Tuesday, July 04, 2006
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