EU needs to step up efforts to price aviation emissions

• June 2021: Publication of the Commission proposal to review the EU ETS and implement CORSIA
• Imminent: the European Commission was mandated to publish, before CORSIA becomes operational, a report about CORSIA and how to implement it in the EU. This report has been written but has not been published. CORSIA became operational on January 1st, 2021.

The EU Green Deal requires an effort from all sectors of the economy, including aviation, in order to reach Europe’s economy-wide emission reduction commitments. 

The European Commission has proposed several options to implement the global aviation scheme CORSIA and combine it with the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS). In line with the Green Deal pledge, the Commission has also proposed to phase out pollution subsidies for airlines under the EU carbon market.

Many airlines and industry groups support CORSIA and lobby for the EU to scrap the EU ETS for aviation. However, CORSIA cannot currently be considered a credible climate policy for at least three main reasons. 

• It covers only the growth in CO2 emissions from international flights, i.e. not those emissions below 2019 levels. 
• It does not address “non-CO2” impacts, such as NOx emissions.
• It relies on offsetting rather than in-sector reductions or robust carbon pricing, and some of the credits deemed eligible under the scheme are of questionable quality.

Corsia cannot, therefore, replace any part of the current EU ETS scope. The Commission should also fully and immediately end the free allocation of allowances to airlines. The free allocation is supposed to help avoid “carbon leakage”, but the Commission itself has found that there is no such risk at current carbon price levels when it comes to aviation.