Aviation takes centre stage during Green Week 

This years' Green Week will be officially opened by Environment Commissioner Dimas on 31 May. He will highlight the urgency of the climate challenge as a starting point for a week of interesting debates on several issues related to this global problem.

After the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol and the start of the EU emissions trading scheme, the momentum of climate change policies has tailed off. Moreover, the EU's focus on competitiveness has led to several business organisations questioning the EU's world leadership on  tackling climate change.

The highlight of the 2005 Green Week will be a one-day stakeholder debate (1 June) on the EU's policy response to growing emissions from air transport. The Commission is considering including the air sector in its emissions trading system. 

That this will be no easy task was underlined on 30 May when Giovanni Bisignani, the chief of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), pointed to the crisis in the global air industry sector. The sector is facing a loss of over six billion dollars this year because of high fuel prices.