Governments do not deploy energy and carbon taxes to their full proposal, the latest “Taxing Energy Use” report by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) finds, urging for higher pollution prices to effectively address the climate crisis. Pricing high-carbon activities is an effective tool for making polluters pay while encouraging them to switch…
Welcome to this latest edition of the Watch This! Or as we like to call simply WT! We hope you can deal with another acronym in your busy life. In this edition, we will be exploring the various forms of engagement, from direct civil activism to the weeds of climate change policy. Carbon Market Watch…
The UN aviation body must urgently set robust, science-based long-term climate targets if the industry wants to win back the confidence of both investors and customers. Many Europeans are losing patience with airlines’ defensive attitude towards the aviation industry’s climate impact and are taking matters into their own hands – by choosing not to fly. …
EU governments breach citizens’ right to information on international aviation climate policy Dear friends, As I write this at the UN Climate Change Conference, Bonn, along with the rest of Western Europe, is sweltering in the scorching heat, an uncomfortable foretaste of what an ever-warming climate has in store for us. I can only hope that…
European countries who are members of the UN civil aviation body are keeping their work on climate policies for the aviation sector secret from their citizens, in breach of an international treaty on public access to environmental information. The Aarhus Convention covers three principles: access to environmental information, public participation in environmental decision-making and access…
The aviation sector must not escape an effective tax on its emissions “A great, great deal has been said about the weather, but very little has ever been done” – Marc Twain On Friday 15th of March, Carbon Market Watch took to the streets with more than 30,000 people as part of the Fridays for…
During a closed door session, the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) –the UN body responsible for global aviation– approved the eligibility criteria for what offsets can be used under the new aviation pollution scheme. While an important step, the decision leaves the door open to billions of older ‘junk’ emission units that…
A new paper published in Nature Climate Change confirms that relying on outdated Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) carbon credits to compensate aviation emissions will do nothing for climate action. You can read the full paper here (paywall): Warnecke et al. (2019): “Robust eligibility criteria essential for new global scheme to offset aviation emissions”, Nature Climate…
Aviation emissions have increased by 10% in Europe between 2014 and 2017, according to the 2019 Aviation Environmental Report, as efficiency improvements are not keeping up with growth of demand. Last week, the Dutch finance minister invited other European Member States to consider the implementation of a European carbon tax for aviation, and announced an…
This week, European Member States agreed on a common position regarding the future implementation of the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) new carbon market, set to start operating in 2021. The creation of a new offsetting mechanism for aviation, the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), was agreed as part of a…
Kaisa Amaral, Communications Director
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Carbon pricing 
International transport 
Climate governance 
Fair climate action