European airlines to trade emissions allowances -

The European Commission is expected to announce on Wednesday that air travel to, from and within Europe will be brought under its existing carbon trading scheme, putting pressure on airlines to curb their greenhouse gas emissions.
According to a leak reported in the Financial Times, the EC will say that emissions caps will apply to flights within the European Union from 2012 and be extended to include international flights from 2013.
EC environment spokesperson Barbara Helfferich told New Scientist that airlines will be asked to apply for emissions allowances through a national authority of their choice.
"For instance, American Airlines could decide that most of its flights fly into Paris and therefore choose French authorities. They would tell the French how many allowances they need to cover their flights and the French would relay that to the European Commission," explains Helfferich.
Trading emissions
The EC will assess these requests much as it assesses National Allocation Plans under the current emissions trading scheme (see Europe sets tough caps on carbon dioxide emissions), with a view to gradually reducing air travel emissions allowances.
The EC will initially assess how many allowances are needed by the industry by taking an average of emissions from 2004 to 2006. These allowances will be traded between airlines and with other industries on the European emissions trading market.
The European trading scheme does not currently set caps on transport or household emissions, nor on emissions of gasses other than carbon dioxide. As a result it covers roughly 40% of all European greenhouse gas emissions. Helfferich says there no plan to bring other forms of transport under the trading scheme at the moment, with the possible exception of shipping.
Nor does the Kyoto Protocol impose caps on emissions from the air transport sector. Helfferich says the EC is aiming for a post-Kyoto regime that brings all industries onboard. She points out that kerosene for air travel is currently untaxed and says the EC's new trading directive that caps air travel emissions will seek to address that.
Rising fast
The latest data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change indicates that air travel represents 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions from human activities. But that proportion is rising fast: the EC estimates that aviation fuel use increased by 73% between 1990 and 2003, and projects an increase of 150% by 2012. Without action, the industry's share of global emissions could rise from 3% to 15% by 2050, the IPCC suggests.
According to the Financial Times, including air travel in the trading scheme would add €39 (£26) to the price of a return long-haul ticket by 2020, if a metric tonne of carbon cost €30 (£20) at that time.
On a related note, the EC's trade commissioner, Peter Mandelson, has dismissed France's proposal to impose a "green" tax on goods imported from countries that have not ratified the Kyoto Protocol: "Not participating in the Kyoto process is not illegal," said Mandelson in a podcast on his website.
He adds that imposing the tax "would be highly problematic under current World Trade Organization rules, and almost impossible to implement in practice".
You can listen to Mandelson's speech here (mp3 file) and read it here.