European Parliament‘s Environment Committee expresses deep disappointment about ICAO proposal
Unambitious agreement for aviation would be unfair for the rest of the industries

“Any amendment of the existing legislation on including aviation in the EU ETS can only be considered if the Global Market Based Measure (GMBM) is ambitious and in any case intra-European flights will continue to be covered by the EU ETS.”
This strong message has been sent by the environment committee of the European Parliament to the delegates meeting at the 39th ICAO Assembly in Montreal from today Tuesday on. The European Union already in 2008 adopted a Directive that covers all flights that start and or land in Europe, including intercontinental flights, in the EU ETS. The legislation came into force in 2012 but to trigger the international process at ICAO, the European Union stopped the clock two times, so that in the first four years only flights inside Europe were covered. It was never true that Europe stood in the way of an international agreement, but unfortunately third-countries managed to give this impression. That is why, we did stop the clock as a sign of good will”, said Peter Liese EP rapporteur on the file. “But the current proposal on the table at ICAO is not meeting the expectations of the European Parliament. The committee in its resolution on the implementation of the Paris Agreement and the 2016 UN Climate Change Conference in Marrakesh, Morocco (COP22) adopted 13.09.2016 expresses its deep disappointment about the current proposal discussed at ICAO.”



“Unfortunately, the proposal does not foresee any reduction of the emissions. ICAO only speaks about carbon neutral growth, even though the industries itself IATA has proposed a reduction of 50% until 2050. Even the carbon neutral growth is not real but virtual because the only instrument for reduction will be offsets, which the European Union has abolished for their own industry. Furthermore, the agreement will only be binding from 2027, six years after the original plan.” said Peter Liese. “I really hope that the proposal will be strengthened and not further weakened and if the participation is voluntary until 2027 we will very carefully look, if third countries will participate. Of course this consequences for our decision.”
The Commission is planning to make a proposal to change the ETS Directive after the ICAO assembly at the end of this year.