EU

07
Mar

MEPs and member state negotiators reached a deal last night (4 March) to change the rules of the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) that will essentially exempt non-EU airlines from having to pay for their CO2 emissions. The change was demanded by third countries such as Russia, China and the United States. The ETS legislation, adopted in 2008, has covered all emissions from flights landing or taking off from an EU airport since 1 January 2012. But third countries objected to the inclusion of emissions that did not take place in EU airspace, saying it was a breach of sovereignty. The European Commission temporarily exempted flights leaving or entering EU airspace in 2012, in order to give the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) time to agree a global mechanism to control aviation emissions. In September ICAO adopted a timeline to agree a future mechanism in 2016, and the Commission decided this was enough to propose an amendment to the legislation to exempt emissions outside EU airspace until then. However the third countries demanded that the EU go further, exempting all emissions from flights entering or leaving the EU – even those emissions that took place within EU airspace. National EU governments have been leaned ...

07

The long and contentious conflict over the application of the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme to foreign carriers appears to be nearing an end as Members of the European Parliament reached an agreement with negotiators from the various Member States to essentially exempt non-EU carriers from any obligation to participate in Europe's cap-and-trade program. Carriers based in EU Member States will still be required to comply. The application of Directive 101/2008 to non-EU airlines has been criticized for its extraterritorial effects since its passage six years ago. Under pressure from Member States fearful of repercussions from trade partners, the EU temporarily suspended its application to non-EU carriers last year, and the European Commission and Parliament had both recently backed a measure to restrict foreign carriers’ obligations to only those pertaining to emissions occurring in EU airspace – thereby addressing the primary legal argument opposing States had put forward. Despite the Parliament's acquiescence to their purported concerns, non-EU countries, perhaps emboldened by their success, continued to press for complete exemption for their carriers which they now appear to have won. March, 6, 2014

25
Sep

The general assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) this week will debate proposals for a global market-based mechanism (MBM) to control the increase in carbon-dioxide emissions from air transport. As an interim measure aimed at reaching consensus, negotiators for the 28-state European Union (EU) have offered to alter its existing emissions trading scheme (ETS) so that it would apply only to flying activity within EU airspace and not to all stages of intercontinental flights. Delegates to the 38th triennial ICAO assembly, which begins on September 24 and runs through October 4, plan to begin discussing draft resolution A37-19 on September 26 and conduct a final vote on October 2. The proposals call for ratification of the envisioned MBM by the 39th assembly in 2016 and full implementation in 2020. In the meantime, the EU-ETS would remain in force, although with a more limited scope. On September 18, lobbying groups the Environmental Defense Fund, the World Wildlife Fund and Transport & Environment called for ICAO to bring forward ratification of the new plan to 2015 and implement it in 2016. Although all sides of the sometimes fractious debate seem ready to compromise to avoid a trade war that threats of retaliatory ...

18
Sep

The airline industry’s attention will turn to Montreal later this month, where European environmental regulators and a host of skeptical nations — including the United States — will square off at the United Nations civil aviation arm’s triennial meeting over how to control jet aircraft emissions. At issue is whether the International Civil Aviation Organization can negotiate a deal that would effectively cap the aviation industry’s emissions worldwide and supersede European Union rules that many foreign airlines say are too expensive and impractical. Some critics of the play say it exceeds the union’s jurisdiction. Congress first got involved in the issue last year, when both chambers passed legislation by Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., barring U.S. airlines from participating in the EU’s emissions trading scheme. President Barack Obama signed the bill into law (PL 112-200) shortly after Thanksgiving. The EU’s top climate official said in November that the emissions trading system would not be enforced before the ICAO meeting this year. Connie Hedegaard, the EU’s climate action commissioner, said the cap-and-trade system proposed for airlines would probably be tucked away if the ICAO can work out a way to curb emissions at the same level the EU’s law is expected to. But European officials ...

18

Air passengers’ rights must be tightened up to stop airlines abusing an “extraordinary circumstances” clause to avoid paying them compensation for delays or denied boarding, said MEPs in Monday’s Transport Committee debate on a European Commission proposal to recast the rules. Rapporteur Georges Bach (EPP, LU) suggested that passengers should be entitled to €300 compensation after just 3 hours’ delay on intra-European-flights. MEPs also debated the need to give customers accurate information when booking, as well as in the airport, and on standard claim procedures. “Today only 2% of passengers who are entitled to compensation actually claim it. They just back out, for fear of high legal costs”, Mr Bach said. He also pinpointed unfair additional costs added to tickets, whether at the time of reservation or for cabin luggage and called for a ban on the airlines’ “no-show” policy of denying a passenger the right to board a return flight if he has not used the outbound part of his ticket. The Bach report will be put to a Transport Committee vote on 14 November. TRAN Press release – Transport − 16-09-2013