Global airlines nudge towards carbon emissions trading
Friday, April 10, 2009
Print
Email
Save this entry to my Favorites
In 2012 European airlines are scheduled to be included in the carbon emissions trading scheme for the first time. Aviation is a industry responsible for 650 million tonnes of CO2 annually - around two percent of global greenhouse gas pollution but this share is expected to rise in the years ahead and the industry has been under sustained pressure from stakeholders including the EU Commission and green pressure groups to do something to tackle carbon emissions.
The airlines have complained about being included in the EU scheme - they complain that participation will damage their competitiveness during a difficult time for airline businesses. Swiss International Airlines chief executive Christoph Franz has argued that including airlines in the EU-ETS could actually lead to more greenhouse gas emissions as airlines sought to fly around EU airspace.
But without signs of an active commitment to reducing their emissions, the industry may well find that it is subject to even tougher regulation in the years ahead and/or a specific pollution tax on aviation fuel as a means of ‘making the polluter pay’.
This week four of the world’s biggest airlines have supported a global scheme to curb carbon emissions - they are Air France/KLM, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic together with the under-fire airport operator BAA.
The Aviation Global Deal Group is pushing for a global cap on aviation emissions to take effect in 2013 when the new climate deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol must be in place. A UN body would be charged with auctioning the C02 allowances with some of the revenue earmarked for financing lower carbon investments in developing countries and some to help fund development of sustainable second-generation biofuels for use in aviation.
Watch this airspace .... this is a really important aspect of the climate change policy domain within the European Union.
Print
Email
ECONOMICS TEACHER RESOURCE NEWSLETTER
Join over 4,000 other Economics Teachers in the UK and around the world who receive the tutor2u Economics Resource Email newsletter. Get special offers, first news of latest resources, teaching ideas, conferences and workshops.
Recent Threads on the Economics Teacher Discussion Forums:
Posts in:
General Economics Teaching
Video Case-study - lunchtime prices slashed
Long Exam Example to Use for Revision Please?
Good hotel in London for school trip
Competitive Markets
Diminishing Returns
Complementary goods - HELP Please!
URgent Help Needed
Equilibrium concept
The price of life
Extended Project Qualification
Comments
I’m really pleased about the new policy, it’s just a shame that a more pressing issue like logging isn’t being dealt with more effectively as well, to help reduce CO2.
At a climate change conference I went to recently, they said that logging around the world creates more CO2 each year than the entire history of planes since aviation started.
Posted by
Ross on 09/28 at 08:47 AM
Most Popular Topic Tags on the Economics Blog
recession,
demand,
economics,
price,
unemployment,
prices,
inflation,
investment,
costs,
profit,
downturn,
supply,
trade,
debt,
employment,
confidence,
euro,
gdp,
competition,
capacity,
risk,
production,
china,
oil,
incentives,
exports,
expectations,
housing,
pay,
manufacturing,
sterling,
food,
profits,
property,
mortgage,
tutor2u,
globalisation,
banks,
revision,
slowdown,
borrowing,
usa,
retailers,
emissions,
deflation,
airlines,
innovation,
dollar,
supermarkets,
entrepreneur,
efficiency,
monopsony,
elasticity,
aqa,
welfare,
consumption,
economist,
productivity,
keynes,
saving,
google,
wealth,
opec,
depression,
moodle,
depreciation,
jobs,
competitiveness,
credit crunch,
economic cycle,
cars,
tim harford,
externalities,
stocks,
infrastructure,
environmental,
strategy,
carbon,
vle,
monopoly,
subsidy,
evaluation,
eu,
management,
losses,
protectionism,
inequality,
spare capacity,
environment,
poverty,
bank of england,
budget deficit,
construction,
behavioural,
wages,
macroeconomics,
carbon trading,
steel,
commodities,
output gap,
skills,
japan,
oligopoly,
imports,
currencies,
bbc,
stagflation,
contestable,
agflation,
cpi,
farming,
newsnight,
choices,
regulation,
survey,
taxes,
government failure,
itunes,
minimum wage,
lse,
climate change,
paul mason,
population,
intervention,
keynes society,
aviation,
amazon,
fiscal stimulus,
single market,
pricing,
dan ariely,
cartel,
nationalisation,
pollution,
eton college,
interest rates,
shareholder,
london,
rationality,
redundancies,
market failure,
rpi,
mpc,
shipping,
behavioural economics,
germany,
robert peston,
india,
rsa,
reputation,
currency,
quantitative easing,
facebook,
income elasticity,
current account,
stakeholders,
brazil,
coffee,
savings,
microsoft,
monetary policy,
crowding out,
barriers to entry,
collapse,
multiplier effect,
suppliers,
economies of scale,
price discrimination,
uk economy,
development,
quiz,
apple,
surplus,
taxation,
labour market,
tesco,
free,
scrappage,
behaviour,
tragedy of the commons,
opportunity cost,
open source,
vat,
smoking,
cost of living,
poverty trap,
merger,
growth,
speculation,
edinburgh,
discrimination,
ownership,
cost benefit analysis,
northern rock,
global,
ireland,
supply chain,
oecd,
shareholders,
scarcity,
balance of payments,
petrol,
liquidity,
duopoly,
etonomics,
iphone,
trade deficit,
starbucks,
happiness,
budget,
human capital,
subsidies,
capital,
immigration,
eurozone,
takeover,
ecb,
paradox of thrift,
exploitation,
advertising,
wiki,
public sector,
utility,
wants,
labour force survey,
peter day,
tax,
brand,
blog,
poland,
iceland,
foreign exchange,
recovery,
indirect tax,
european union,
robert frank,
roger bootle,
ocr economics,
heathrow,
hbos,
hotels,
freight,
creative destruction,
federal reserve,
kaletsky,
price war,
information failure,
spain,
crude oil,
All tags
