EU passes law to force airlines to pay more for polluting

The European Union reached an agreement early on Wednesday (7) on a law to increase the price that airlines have to pay for their carbon dioxide emissions, which warm the planet, increasing pressure for the sector to stop using fossil fuels.

Today, airlines operating flights within Europe are required to present EU carbon market allowances that cover their CO2 emissions, but the EU gives them most of these allowances free of charge.

This is expected to change under the law agreed upon by EU country negotiators and the European Parliament, which would phase out these free allowances by 2026. Free allowances would be reduced by 25% in 2024 and 50% in 2025.

This means airlines will have to pay for their C02 allowances, providing a financial incentive for them to pollute less.

A smaller amount of free CO2 allowances –20 million– will be made available from 2024 to 2030 for airlines using sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), to partially compensate them for the price difference between SAFs and fossil fuel kerosene, much cheaper.

“We are with the sector during the green transition process”, said the main negotiator of the European Parliament, Suncana Glavak.

Industry group Airlines for Europe said it was “extremely disappointed” with the plan to phase out free licenses by 2026.

“This is long before there are truly effective decarbonisation solutions at the scale needed,” the group said in a statement.

So far, the EU has limited its carbon market to cover emissions from flights within the EU, but negotiators have agreed to assess in 2026 whether the UN aviation agency’s scheme to offset CO2 emissions from international flights is on track to generate net zero emissions by 2050. If not, the EU will propose extending its carbon market to cover emissions from all outbound flights.

Climate activists lamented that international flights were not added to the carbon market sooner.

“Average European households will continue to pay much more for their CO2 emissions than frequent long-haul fliers,” said Jo Dardenne, director of aviation at the non-profit group Transport and Environment.

Airlines will also have to start reporting other pollutants, including nitrogen oxides and soot particles, from 2025, with the EU planning in 2028 to propose adding these emissions to the carbon market.

EU countries and the bloc’s parliament will now formally approve the law before it takes effect.

Translated by Luiz Roberto M. Gonçalves