1 Reducing the climate
change impact of aviation
| (26885)
12790/05
COM(05) 459
+ADD 1
SEC(2005)1184
| Commission Communication: Reducing the climate change impact of aviation
Commission Staff Working document: Annex to the Commission Communication "Reducing the climate change impact of aviation" Impact Assessment
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| Legal base | — |
| Document originated | 27 September 2005
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| Deposited in Parliament | 5 October 2005
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| Departments | Transport and Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
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| Basis of consideration | EM of 17 October 2005
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| Previous Committee Report | None, but see footnotes 1 and 3
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| To be discussed in Council | See para 1.15 below
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| Committee's assessment | Politically important
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| Committee's decision | For debate in European Standing Committee A
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Background
1.1 According to the Commission, although the fuel efficiency
of aircraft has increased by more than 70% over the past 40 years,
this has been more than offset by the even higher growth in traffic,
leading to an increase in the impact of aviation on the climate.
Thus, whilst the Community's total emissions of those greenhouse
gases controlled under the Kyoto Protocol fell by 5.5% between
1990 and 2003, those from international aviation increased by
73%, corresponding to an annual growth of 4.3%. The Commission
also points out that, whilst the contribution of aviation to greenhouse
gas emission is still "modest", a continuation in this
rate of growth would result in emissions from international flights
from Community airports having increased by 150% by 2012, and
would offset more than a quarter of the reductions required under
the Community's agreed Kyoto target. It accordingly suggests that,
in the longer run, aviation emissions will on current trends become
a major contributor, and it has therefore put forward this Communication
as basis for discussing how the environmental costs of these emissions
might be internalised, notably into the Community's Emission Trading
Scheme,[1] which is due
to be reviewed in June 2006.
The current document
1.2 The Communication points out that commercial aircraft cruising
at altitude emit carbon dioxide (the most important greenhouse
gas), nitrogen oxides (which, in producing ozone but reducing
atmospheric concentrations of methane, have a net warming effect)
and water vapour (which triggers condensation trails).[2]
It also notes that greenhouse gas emissions from international
air transport are accounted for under the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in a different way from
other emissions, due to a lack of consensus as to how responsibility
for them should be allocated. As a consequence, only domestic
emissions of carbon dioxide are included in national emission
totals, and, since the Commission believes that this removes a
key part of the political pressure to implement measures in other
sectors, it argued in the Communication it produced in February
2005,[3] that international
aviation should be included in any climate change regime after
2012.
1.3 The Commission also notes that, although the
developed countries which are parties to the Kyoto Protocol agreed
to include an explicit obligation to pursue the limitation or
reduction of aviation emissions through the International Civil
Aviation Organisation (ICAO), this has so far contributed mainly
to a better understanding of the global climate impacts of aviation.
However, although the ICAO has not been able to agree on regulatory
standards for carbon dioxide emissions, it has endorsed the concept
of international open emissions trading, to be implemented through
voluntary emissions trading or the incorporation of international
aviation into states' existing schemes.
1.4 The Commission points out that the Community
is a major player in global aviation, accounting for about half
of the carbon dioxide emissions from international aviation reported
by developed countries, and that it consistently supports UNFCCC
and ICAO activities. In view of this, and what it describes as
the Community's special obligations under the Kyoto Protocol,
the Sixth Environmental Action Programme has sought to identify
and undertake specific actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
from aviation if no such action was agreed within the ICAO by
2002. Against that backdrop, the Commission has reviewed the available
options, and says that, whilst there is no quick and easy technical
solution, there is a need for a comprehensive approach, strengthening
existing action and exploring new measures.
EXISTING POLICIES
1.5 The Commission identifies three main areas, apart
from raising public awareness and increasing the performance and
competitiveness of alternative methods of transport. These are
more research into activities which would reduce the environmental
impact of aircraft emissions, particularly carbon dioxide and
nitrogen oxides, with the "greening" of air transport
(including research into alternative fuels) being a priority under
the new recently proposed Seventh Framework Programme; more efficient
air traffic management, as under the Single European Sky
and SESAME initiatives, aimed at minimising queuing before take-off
and at optimising flight paths; and the more consistent application
of energy taxation.
1.6 In particular, it suggests that, as a matter
of principle, aviation fuel should be subject to the same energy
taxes as other fuels, but points out that, although a Council
Directive[4] enables Member
States to introduce fuel taxation for domestic flights (as in
the United States, Japan and India), only the Netherlands has
so far decided to pursue this course of action. Similarly, whilst
Community legislation also allows fuel taxation for flights between
two Member States, it could be difficult to avoid discrimination
against Community carriers in cases where exemptions for fuel
for international flights are set out in bilateral Air Service
Agreements (ASA) which convey rights on other carriers. In particular,
it notes that, following the judgement of the European Court of
Justice in the "Open Skies" cases, more than 200 ASAs
with non-Community countries have been amended to open up the
possibility of taxing fuel supplied to all carriers on an equal
basis, but it says that, since this process will inevitably take
some time to complete, it cannot be relied upon as a key means
of combating climate change in the short and medium term.
NEW INSTRUMENTS
1.7 The Commission says that it has therefore considered
a number of new market-based instruments, such as airline ticket
or departure taxes. However, the only effect of these would be
to dampen demand, and they would not provide an incentive to improved
environmental performance. It therefore sees the most promising
ways of addressing climate impact as being emissions trading (which
sets a limit on total emissions from a group of entities, and
lets the market determine the costs for each tonne emitted) and
emissions charges (which set the cost per tonne of emissions,
but then let the entities concerned determine the extent to which
emissions are reduced in response).
1.8 It says that, if these two approaches were applied
to the aviation sector in isolation, their effect in terms of
environmental effectiveness and economic efficiency would in principle
be the same, but it notes that emissions trading has been used
by the Community[5] since
1 January 2005 for tackling climate change, and that many are
considering extending this beyond national level, and delegating
it to company level. Since the wider the scheme's coverage, the
lower the costs of achieving a given reduction in emission levels,
the Commission says that the economic costs of achieving the same
environmental goal for aviation would be lower using this approach
than under emissions charging. It also believes that the potential
for the wider application of emissions trading would be greater,
since it is a key feature of the Kyoto Protocol and has been explicitly
endorsed by the ICAO, whereas emissions charging has proved to
be contentious at international level.
1.9 On the basis that including aviation within the
Community's emissions trading scheme seems the most promising
way forward, the Commission says that it is nevertheless crucial
to address a number of technical aspects if this approach is to
deliver its full potential, and it proposes that these should
be examined further in a new Aviation Working Group under the
European Climate Change Programme. In the meantime, it identifies
four issues which it regards as central to the further debate.
These are the type of entity to be made responsible (where
it suggests that this should be the aircraft operators); the extent
to which the full impact is addressed (where it says that,
notwithstanding the uncertainties, both the carbon dioxide and
non-carbon dioxide impacts should be addressed as far as possible);
the types of flight covered (where its preference is to
include all flights departing from Community airports); and the
way in which the sector's overall emissions limit should be
calculated and apportioned (where it suggests that the rules
already in place under the emissions trading scheme are not necessarily
suitable for aviation, and that special arrangements would be
needed to ensure that the accounting system linking that scheme
to the Kyoto Protocol is not adversely affected).
1.10 The Commission also says that, in parallel with
this approach, a number of existing policies and actions should
continue and be strengthened, including aeronautics research,
the development of the Single European Sky, the removal of all
legal obstacles to the application of energy taxation to aviation
fuel, and the development within the ICAO of new standards aimed
at limiting aircraft emissions at source.
The Government's view
1.11 In their joint Explanatory Memorandum of 17
October 2005, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department
of Transport (Ms Karen Buck) and the Minister of State (Environment
and Agri-Environment) at the Department for Environment, Food
and Rural Affairs (Mr Elliot Morley) say that the Government is
committed to taking a lead in tackling the problem of climate
change, and to putting the UK on a path to a reduction in carbon
dioxide emissions of some 60% from current levels by 2050, with
real progress by 2020. They confirm that these domestic targets
do not include international aviation emissions, but note that
demand is rising in the sector internationally at about 4% a year,
and that forecasts have suggested that by 2030, over 90% of carbon
dioxide emissions from UK aviation would be from international
flights (which could amount to about a quarter of the UK's total
contribution to global warming by that date).
1.12 The Ministers say that the Government is committed
to ensuring the long term development of aviation is sustainable,
balancing its economic benefit with its external environmental
costs, and that the sector needs to take its share of responsibility
for tackling the problem of climate change. They point out that
the White Paper "The Future of Air Transport"[6]
set outs the Government's view that the best way to ensure this
is through a well-designed emissions trading scheme, and that
the intention is to press for aviation's inclusion in the Community's
Emissions Trading Scheme from 2008 or as soon as possible thereafter
—
a step which they say would deliver a guaranteed environmental
objective in the most cost-effective manner for the Community
as a whole. Taking forward the work on reducing the climate change
impacts of aviation is thus a priority for the current UK Presidency.
The Government also agrees with the Commission that there is further
potential to tap existing policies such as the adoption by airports,
airlines and air traffic controllers of working practices which
minimise the impact of their activities on climate change; research
by aerospace manufacturers into new technologies to reduce the
climate change impact of future fleets; and voluntary action to
control greenhouse gas emissions and develop sustainability strategies.
However, the Government also recognises that these may not provide
a total solution, and it will continue to explore the use of other
economic instruments, reserving the right to act alone or bilaterally
with like-minded partners if progress towards agreement at an
international level proves too slow.
1.13 In the meantime, the Ministers say that it is
too early to discuss detailed factors such as the geographical
scope of emissions trading, and whether non-carbon dioxide impacts
should be reflected in any such scheme, as all of these will be
subject to negotiation. However, they believe that the group proposed
in the Communication will provide the right forum in which to
discuss these issues, and that looking carefully, and in detail,
at the impact of the different options for trading will be a key
task before coming to any conclusions.
1.14 The Ministers have also provided an initial
Regulatory Impact Assessment with their Explanatory Memorandum,
but recognise that neither this, nor the Impact Assessment produced
by the Commission, is able to go into any depth of detail. However,
they expect further analysis of both, once more details of the
trading scheme are known.
1.15 Finally, the Ministers say that, during the
UK Presidency, the Government hopes to debate the political issues,
and to agree a way forward at the Environment Council in December.
They also note that the conclusions of Aviation Working Group
will be fed into the ongoing review of the existing framework
of the Community's emission trading scheme, which is due to report
by 30 June 2006. However, the timetable for any legislative action
will depend upon the Commission, which has suggested in this Communication
will be due by the end of 2006.
Conclusion
1.16 Given the importance attached within the
Community, and not least by the UK, to meeting the commitments
which have been entered into under the Kyoto Protocol, it is clearly
anomalous that aviation should be largely outside the measures
which have been taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, particularly
in view of the extent to which it seems likely to contribute in
future to those emissions.
1.17 The Commission has set out in this unusually
cogent Communication the reasons why this is so, and has explored
in depth the various steps which could be taken to address the
problem. Consequently, although it has indicated that it intends
to bring forward by the end of 2006 legislative proposals to give
effect to the inclusion of aviation with the Community's emissions
trading scheme, we believe that this is an opportune moment for
the House to consider the issues raised by this Communication,
including the relative merits of this approach as compared with
some of the other instruments examined. We are therefore recommending
it for debate in European Standing Committee A.
1 (22992) 14394/01; see HC 152-xviii (2001-02), para
1 (6 February 2002), HC 152-xxxvii (2001-02), para 1 (17 July
2002), and HC 152-xli (2001-02), para 1 (6 November 2002). Stg
Co Deb, European Standing Committee A (21 November 2002). Back
2
They also emit sulphate and soot particles, though these have
a much smaller direct effect. Back
3
"Winning the Battle Against Global Climate Change" (26379)
6417/05; see HC 38-xii (2004-05), para 5 (23 March 2005). Back
4
2003/96/EC. Back
5
Under Directive 2003/87/EC. Back
6
Cm 6046 of 16 December 2003. Back
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