MEPs vote to tighten emission limits on aircraft

Commenting on the adoption of his report, MEP Peter Liese said that something needed to be done about the potential windfall profits airlines could make from the scheme, as was the case in other sectors included in the EU-ETS. "Electricity companies had received all CO2 certificates free of charge and would still increase prices. We can avoid this by a higher percentage of mandatory auctioning."

However, he was not satisfied with the tightening of the overall cap at 75% of average emissions recorded in 2004-2006. "That may be nice from an environmental point of view, but it is not feasible technically and would harm the competitiveness of EU airlines. So we have to amend our position for the plenary vote", said Liese.

The Greens were upbeat after the vote, saying MEPs "succeeded in significantly improving" what they described as a "weak proposal from the European Commission". Caroline Lucas, the rapporteur for Parliament's earlier opinion on aviation and climate change, welcomed the provision to limit airlines' capacity to buy pollution credits from other sectors such as chemicals or steelmaking once aviation is included in the scheme. 

But the overall tightening of the cap was rejected as "disastrous" by the Association of European Airlines (AEA) which represents major carriers, including Air France-KLM, British Airways and Lufthansa.

Speaking to EurActiv, AEA communications manager Françoise Humbert said that the tightening would be "disastrous", especially for the Central and Eastern European countries that joined the EU in 2004, as it does not take account of the economic growth that is taking place there thanks to EU membership.

"These countries' connectivity has inevitably increased since accession," Humbert pointed out, adding that she hoped this could be rectified when the bill is voted upon in the parliament plenary later this year. She also questioned the scheme's viability with regard to WTO trade rules, warning that Europe could be "heading towards commercial conflicts."

However, this was not the view of environmental NGO Transport and Environment (T&E). "While it is somewhat reassuring that MEPs have strengthened the Commission's proposal, they have not gone far enough in tackling rising emissions from the sector", said João Vieira of T&E.

Delia Villagrasa of WWF added that other measures "such as a fuel tax and the end of VAT exemptions are also needed" in order to tackle the rising impact of aviation on the climate.