There would have to be a 100 Billion Dollar U.N. Enviornmental Impact study first
Posted on 11/15/2006 4:07:53 PM PST by MadIvan
AIRLINE passengers would pay up to £27 extra for a return ticket to cover the environmental damage caused by their flights, under European Commission proposals to address climate change.
Draft legislation, to be published next month, would require all flights arriving or departing from European Union airports to buy permits to cover their carbon dioxide emissions.
The document, a copy of which has been obtained by The Times, says that airlines would join Europe’s emissions trading scheme by 2011 and predicts that they would pass on the costs to their passengers.
The report estimates that passengers on flights within Europe would pay an additional €9 (£6) for their tickets, with the actual sum depending on the price of the permits. Those flying long haul would pay up to €39.60 (£27).
This will infuriate the United States and many other countries because it would affect all flights into and out of Europe, regardless of their origin or destination. US airlines would be forced to buy permits to cover their emissions on their European routes.
The Association of European Airlines (AEA) said that the proposal could provoke a trade war between the US and the EU, and raise the risk of sanctions on European goods and flight restrictions.
The commission had previously appeared to favour a scheme that covered flights only starting and ending within the EU. But the document concludes that an intra-EU scheme would be far less effective, reducing CO2 emissions by 44 million tonnes compared with 183 million tonnes if all arriving and departing flights were included.
The document says that greenhouse gas emissions from international flights from EU airports grew by 7.5 per cent between 2003 and 2004, with a cumulative growth of 87 per cent from 1990 levels.
It says that aviation must be made to play its part in efforts to prevent global temperatures from rising more than 2C above pre-industrial levels.
Airlines would be required to start reporting and monitoring the emissions from 2010 in preparation for the permit scheme’s introduction in 2011.
The document says that the burden of complying with the scheme would fall more heavily on airlines using older, less efficient aircraft and on those that fail to sell a high proportion of their seats.
British airlines, which tend to have relatively young aircraft, would be less affected. Budget airlines like Ryanair, which sell more than 80 per cent of their seats, would also find it cheaper to comply.
British Airways said that it welcomed the principle of emissions trading but wanted it to be limited to flights within Europe. A BA spokesman said that the costs of complying with the scheme would place an unfair burden on the airline in fiercely competitive market.
“It would disadvantage all EU long-haul carriers against their competitors around the world. All our flights would be covered but, for a US carrier, it would only be a small proportion.”
The spokesman said that the wide scope of the scheme was bound to provoke legal challenges, which could delay its introduction.
An spokeswoman for the AEA said: “The US and Asia are not happy about it. We will see trade wars and there could be retaliation in the form of embargoes and removing air traffic rights.”
The US Air Transport Association said in a statement: “Non-European countries, including the US, believe that unilateral imposition of emissions trading requirements absent mutual agreement bet-ween nations violates international law.
“Air carriers have dramatically improved their fuel efficiency and trading obligations are unnecessary to spur continued improvement.”
EMISSIONS SOAR
# Passenger numbers at British airports rose from 102 million in 1990 to 228 million last year
# The Government predicts that passenger numbers will grow to 470 million by 2030
# Carbon dioxide from UK flights doubled between 1990 and 2000, but declined by 9 per cent from other sources
# Aviation accounted for 5.5 per cent of total UK CO2 emissions in 2003.
British Airways estimates that aviation will account for up to 46 per cent of UK CO2 emissions by 2050
# Britain generates more flights than any other European country. A fifth of all international air passengers worldwide are on flights that arrive or leave from UK airports
# Last year 43 per cent of British passengers had made more than three return trips in the preceding 12-months. Half the population did not fly at all last year
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
EU's idea of creating jobs.
Tax the hell out of something to create a new bureaucracy.
Beano
Regards, Ivan
There would have to be a 100 Billion Dollar U.N. Enviornmental Impact study first
You know, this gets me thinking. What if raising taxes was what was behind the whole Global Warming push? That would explain a lot!
The EU is going to learn the hard way that they need the american economy a whole lot more than we need theirs.
Regards, Ivan
What are they going to use the money for? Is there a giant CO2 vacuum cleaner or something that costs a lot of money they can't afford to buy without this tax? I think unless the eurogreens can show what we get for the money, we should refuse to pay.
These Euromorons are in no danger of winning either the Physics or Economics Nobel Prize any time soon...
Taxes reduce emissions?
WTF?
Fine.
The U.S. should impose an exit tax of 54 euros on ALL exits from the U.S., by any and all means. Even walking across the border.
Double if "to" a muslim country...
Europe...been there, done that, it sucks.
I could care less.
Regards, Ivan
Don't complain. Don't travel/vacation in Europe. Otherwise, complaining won't do a damn thing except "make them hate us" and you know how we feel about that.
How much hot CO2 is expelled in parliment on a daily basis?
Not a flame, but I thought this was always obvious. Since there is no "cure" for too much CO2, what is the purpose of charging a fee. Even if its a cost/tax used to disuade people from emmiting more CO2, there has never been a plan to use the money to "fix" anything in the environment.
Global warming is globaloney.
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