Both the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) seek to address the impacts of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from aviation on the climate through market-based measures.

As a matter of urgency, policymakers must be more stringent in how they regulate the aviation sector. The industry must finally take steps to mitigate its disastrous ecological consequences and better align itself with its own Long-Term Aspirational Goal (LTAG) of carbon neutrality by 2050.

While initial actions are underway at the European level to finally monitor non-CO2 effects, policies that properly address international emissions – responsible for 61% of the EU’s aviation emissions – must also be initiated, as the European Parliament, NGOs and other stakeholders have long requested.

To advise this process, Carbon Market Watch commissioned environmental consultants Ricardo to produce this study comparing the functioning of the EU ETS and CORSIA, and their respective climate ambitions.