Airlines Set to Win Carbon Credits from Biofuel Flights
(EurActiv) The European Commission has asked airlines to report on “the amount of biomass” they use so that biofuels can be accounted as “zero emission” in the greenhouse gas emissions reports they are requested to produce each year under the EU’s carbon scheme for the aviation sector.
The plan, detailed in a set of two draft EU regulations on verification and monitoring of greenhouse gases, comes amid an ongoing controversy over the potential negative effects of biofuels on the environment.
It also comes amid growing concern that Europe’s cap-and-trade scheme for airlines could trigger a full-scale commercial war with the US and China, which are opposed to the airline charge.
The draft legislation gives European industries details on how they should report about greenhouse gases covered by the EU’s flagship emissions trading scheme (EU-ETS).
Among those is a requirement for airlines to list “the amount of biomass used as a fuel,” broken down on a yearly basis. The airlines’ biofuel consumption should come “as an annex to the annual emission report,” the draft reads. READ MORE
