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Peer Review

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Joint position statement by WWF, Can Europe, Friends of the Earth, European Federation for Transport and Environment

Summary
In this paper environmental NGOs present their views on the proposal to include aviation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). The EU ETS will not, alone, stop the strong upward trend in the growth of emissions from international aviation. However, in order to maximise the emission savings which do take place within the aviation sector and to improve the environmental effectiveness of the EU ETS as a whole environmental NGOs ask the European Parliament and the Council to consider amendments to the draft Directive which:
- recognize that the inclusion of aviation in the EU ETS is not going to be sufficient to bring the sector’s emissions down to sustainable levels and that therefore all ancillary policies options should be kept open;
- ensure that aviation delivers significant emission reductions itself before allowances from other sectors can be purchased;
- place a stringent quantitative and qualitative limit on the access to Clean Development Mechanism or Joint Implementation (CDM/JI) credits;
- address the aviation sector’s full climate impact. A multiplier of at least 2 should be set until specific measures are implemented to tackle NOx emissions and the formation of aviation induced clouds;
- set a cap which does not exceed 50% of the average level of emissions in 2004/2006 for the phase ending in 2012, and which is in line with EU climate targets for phases beyond 2012;
- allocate 100% of the allowances by auction; and
- include all flights departing from and arriving in the EU in the scheme from 2010.