EU agrees to make airlines pay for pollution

THE European Union (EU) reached a deal on Wednesday (Dec 7) on a law to increase the price that airlines have to pay for emitting carbon dioxide (CO2), adding pressure on the sector to shift away from fossil fuels.

EU countries and the bloc’s Parliament will now formally approve the law before it takes effect.

Currently, airlines running flights within Europe must submit permits from the EU’s carbon market to cover their CO2 emissions. However, most of these permits are given for free.

This is set to change under the new law, which would phase out free permits by 2026. Airlines would have to pay for their CO2 permits, providing a financial incentive for them to pollute less. Free permits would be cut by a quarter in 2024, and then by half in 2025.

Twenty million free CO2 permits would still be made available from 2024 to 2030, to airlines using sustainable aviation fuels. This is to partly compensate them for the price difference between such fuels and fossil fuel kerosene, which is far cheaper.

Suncana Glavak, the EU Parliament’s lead negotiator, said: “We stand with the sector through the process of the green transition.”

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The EU has so far limited its carbon market to covering emissions from flights within the EU. But negotiators agreed to assess in 2026 whether the International Civil Aviation Organization’s scheme to offset international flights’ CO2 emissions is on track to deliver net-zero emissions by 2050. If it is not, the EU will propose extending its carbon market to cover emissions from all departing flights.

Climate campaigners lamented that international flights would not be added to the carbon market sooner.

Aviation director at non-profit group Transport and Environment Jo Dardenne said: “Average European families will continue to pay much more for their CO2 emissions than frequent long-haul flyers.”

Airlines will also have to start reporting other pollutants, including nitrogen oxides and soot particles, from 2025. The EU plans in 2028 to propose adding those emissions to the carbon market. REUTERS