The 'Sustainable and responsible initiatives' website wrote:
As competition between airlines intensifies and low-cost airline tickets increase, MEPs last week examined the environmental effects of civil aviation. Parliament adopted a resolution in which it proposed a series of measures which could affect the price of air tickets and reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
Propulsion engines - a powerful source of CO2 emissions
Airliners fly at an altitude of between 8 and 13 thousand kilometers, at which they emit gases that alter the atmosphere and contribute to climate change. The higher the planes fly, the more difficult it is to remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Emissions from aircraft currently reach just 3% of the EU total, but this proportion is growing rapidly. If no action is taken before 2012 "the increase in aviation emissions will offset more than a quarter of the reductions required by the EU's Kyoto target," said Caroline Lucas, British parliament member of the group of Greens and rapporteur.
The proposed measures
The resolution recommends the application of the rules provided for by the emissions trading system to the aeronautical sector, in order to allow airlines which exceed their emission limits to buy emission credits from those who remain in below their emission limits. Parliament also recommends improving air traffic management in order to save fuel and reduce emissions.
The application of these measures by airlines will, in practice, shorten the waiting times before takeoff and the landing times when airport traffic is busy. MEPs are also calling for a tax on kerosene, domestic flights and flights within the EU to allow fair competition between other modes of transport and civil aviation.
The EU gets used to the skies
As aircraft emissions are not covered by the Kyoto Protocol or any other international climate change regulation, the initiative supported by Parliament places the EU at the forefront of the fight against climate change . The effects will be significant even if the rules only apply to the Union, because the EU is responsible for almost half of the CO2 emissions produced by international air transport worldwide. Although the report is not legally binding, the Commission will certainly take it into account when preparing the proposal for a directive, which must in any case be approved by Parliament and the 25 Member States.
Source: European Parliament.
Taken from the page Next