Scoping voluntary corporate climate action in the European aviation sector

The beyond value chain mitigation (BCVM) approaches for eight European airlines, which were collectively responsible for over half of the total CO2e emissions of the aviation sector in the EU in 2019, were assessed in this study to provide insights with regards to both the extent and quality of efforts, beyond the value chain, to …

European airlines misleading customers with claims of “carbon-neutral” flights – study

A new study commissioned by Carbon Market Watch has revealed gaping holes in the effectiveness of voluntary climate action taken by eight major European airlines. Misleading claims of “carbon neutral” flying, a dependence on poor quality carbon offsets and the low cost of a tonne of CO2 that customers can pay to offset are just …

Analysis and suggested amendments to the European Commission’s revised proposal for the EU ETS for aviation

The European Commission’s proposed revision of the EU’s Emissions Trading System for aviation and implementation of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) lays out the groundwork for the welcome phasing out of free allocation. However, it fails to uphold, let alone strengthen, carbon pricing for the aviation sector by prioritising the risky and ineffective implementation of CORSIA over a full-scope inclusion of flights under the EU ETS.

Lufthansa, BA, Air France were Europe’s most polluting airlines pre-Covid

Joint press release by Carbon Market Watch and Transport&Environment BRUSSELS 29 March 2021. Three of the biggest recipients of airline bailouts – Lufthansa, British Airways and Air France – were the three biggest European airline emitters before the pandemic grounded flights, official data shows.[1] It is the first time ever that the total emissions of …

Joint letter to the European Commission on sustainable fuels

Dear Vice President Timmermans, Commissioner Valean, Commissioner Simson, Commissioner Breton We, the signatories, write to express our support for the goals of the European Green Deal for shipping and aviation, notably the objectives to deploy sustainable alternative fuels/energy via a dedicated Fuel EU Maritime and ReFuelEU Aviation initiatives. Maritime and aviation transport are important parts …

Industry Covid Climate Lobbying

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, Carbon Market Watch has been following industry lobbying whereby the health crisis has been used as a pretext to weaken climate legislation. Building on the report “Never Wasting a Crisis: Industry Climate Lobbying During the COVID-19 Pandemic Exposed“, more cases have been collected below. The table above provides …

EU carbon market report underlines the need to end pollution handouts

While the EU carbon market is helping to clean up Europe’s power sector, industrial CO2 pollution remained stubbornly high, and that from aviation kept growing in 2019. This is partly due to overly generous handouts of pollution permits. These subsidies must be phased out to incentivise cleaner production and more sustainable transport as the scheme …

Airlines continue to push against climate policies as EU Commission proposes new rules

Airlines have been hit hard by the pandemic induced economic slowdown and travel restrictions, but are also using the situation as an excuse to lobby even harder against climate regulations. As the EU works on its aviation climate package, it must ensure that – like other transport modes – the sector pays for its pollution …