In February 2017, the European Commission (EC) made a proposal for the revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) prolonging the existing temporary limited scope of the scheme that applies to flights within the European Economic Area (EEA) only. In practice this means that no new requirements will be introduced for flights into and out of the EEA until 2021 when ICAO’s global scheme CORSIA will be introduced but the current intra-EEA system will be retained. ERA responded to the EC announcement with a press release and is now launching a lobbying campaign as the EC proposal progresses through the European Parliament & Council.
ERA has consistently argued that the current reduced scope of the EU ETS has limited environmental effectiveness but imposes considerable administrative burdens on many ERA members, and it would therefore make sense to suspend the scheme ahead of CORSIA coming into force. Nonetheless, this EC proposal will bring clarity for operators inside and outside the EEA. We have also welcomed the commitment by the EC to a further review of the EU ETS prior to CORSIA coming into force. Without such a review, there is a considerable risk of a dual scheme post 2021 which would penalise our members.
Source: ERA