EU moots plans to include airlines
in carbon emissions trading scheme
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2006
Cars and airplanes are major sources of the carbon dioxide emissions linked to climate change. Neither is currently covered by the scheme that gives industry incentives to cut CO2.
"As to the inclusion of aviation, I hope the commission will, in the next few weeks, come up with legislative proposal," the European Commission's top environment official Mogens Peter Carl told a debate organized by the Centre for European Policy Studies.
He refused to say when the new draft rules would come out.
The EU would next week start planning for the second stage of the scheme, he said, hailing it as satisfactory despite initial teething problems.
This would see the EU cap how many allocations countries could grant, he said.
"You don't have a market if you don't have a shortage," he added.
Under the current program, EU governments are left to estimate how much CO2 their industry will emit in a year, and then issue allocations accordingly.
In May, environmentalists criticized the surplus of emissions credits granted industry last year, saying governments had given out too many. Germany reported a huge surplus of emissions credits, claiming this had successfully cut CO2 emissions by 4.3 percent.
Carl said international carbon emissions trading schemes could halve world CO2 releases by 2050.
The European Union and Canada both run schemes that allows industry to trade allocations for carbon dioxide, encouraging them to reduce CO2.
Carl said valuable lessons had been learned from the first nine months of the EU scheme and officials would next week starting planning for the second stage.
Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change, the EU is to reduce emissions by 8 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
Its emissions trading scheme is designed to help it meet that target, without hurting businesses. The program limits CO2 output in 21 nations, giving companies a carbon allowance that they can sell on to others if they did not need to use the full amount.