Air transport and the EU's emissions trading scheme. European Policy Paper #13, June 2009

This paper examines the EU’s strategy for containing aircraft emissions as embodied in the new legislation on aviation emissions, as well as criticisms of this strategy and the political and technical problems it faces. The paper discusses in turn: 1. The nature of the aircraft emissions problem; 2. The principles and operation of the Emissions Trading Scheme; 3. The development of an EU strategy to cope with aviation emissions; 4. The attitudes of major stakeholders within and outside Europe to the emissions problem; 5. The attitudes of these stakeholders (and the responses of the EU institutions) to the more contentious issues that emerged in discussion of the Commission’s proposals for including commercial aviation in the ETS; and 6. The prospects for the EU’s strategy and – more broadly – for the development of a global regime to control and, if possible, reduce the contribution of aviation emissions to global warming