The European Union reached agreement early on Wednesday on a law to raise the price airlines must pay when they emit carbon dioxide, raising pressure on the industry to move away from fossil fuels.
Airlines operating flights within Europe are currently required to submit allowances from the European Union’s carbon market to cover their carbon dioxide emissions, but the bloc gives them most of these allowances free of charge.
However, the process must change under the law agreed by the negotiators of the bloc countries and the European Parliament, which wants to phase out these free licenses by 2026. Free licenses will be reduced by 25% in 2024 and 50% in 2025.
This means airlines will have to pay for their CO2 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 difference in price between SAFs and the much cheaper fossil fuel kerosene .
Industry group Airlines for Europe said it was “extremely disappointed” with the plan to phase out free licenses by 2026.
“This is long before truly efficient decarbonization solutions are available at the scale needed to be effective,” the group said in a statement.
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.
Source: CNN Brasil
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