Aviation industry next for pollution crackdown

Date: 21/01/1999

By Gareth Harding

Having spent the past few decades progressively tightening emissions from cars, vans and lorries, the European Commission now has the aviation sector firmly within its sights.

Green groups have been aware of the growing environmental damage caused by aircraft for some time now, but the Commission has been caught between a rock and a hard place in its efforts to do something about it.

On the one hand, air transport is a huge creator of jobs and an immensely popular form of travel. On the other, it is one of the most environmentally damaging ways of getting from A to B.

Although emissions from individual aircraft have fallen in recent years, this has been offset by the dramatic increase in air traffic. Since 1980, it has risen by more than 120&percent; and most forecasts predict it will continue to grow at the rate of about 5-6&percent; per year in the future. Apart from requiring the construction of more airports, such levels of growth will lead to higher emissions of greenhouse gases, thus threatening the Union's climate change goals set at Kyoto.

Frazer Goodwin, of Brussels based group Transport and Environment, says the spotlight has turned on aviation and the environment of late, but “this hasn't been translated into concrete policies and measures”.

The Commission is hoping to make amends for this in a policy paper on aviation and the environment due out next month. Its non-binding report is likely to recommend that the EU adopts strict unilateral measures to tackle rising aircraft emissions.

It has been hesitant about doing this in the past because of its membership of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) - the body which regulates air traffic.

The ICAO has traditionally taken a lowest common denominator approach to the environment, which has often led to public clashes with the EU. In October, for example, the organisation's assembly issued a stern rebuke to the Union for taking unilateral action to reduce aircraft noise. The body also rejected calls for an international fuel tax, favoured by a growing number of EU member states.

The Commission will decide whether to propose an EU-wide kerosene tax after it

has received the results of a Dutch study on its effects on the environment and the competitiveness of the European airline industry.

Green groups argue that such a tax could slow the growth in greenhouse gas emissions without damaging the airline industry's bottom line.

But European aircraft companies contend that a unilateral fuel levy would bring few environmental benefits whilst hitting the sector's overall competitiveness.

The Commission is keeping its cards close to its chest at the moment, but with the German government joining the UK in pushing for a kerosene tax at the EU level, it may be forced to reveal its hand sooner rather than later.