Airlines Target EU Climate Rules after Carmakers Showed the Way

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January 27, 2026

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by Tommaso Lecca (Politico) The recent weakening of the ban on gasoline and diesel cars is fueling calls for a similar reversal in the aviation sector. -- ... Their big target is getting the EU to dilute its mandate forcing airlines to use increasing amounts of cleaner jet fuels, alternatives to kerosene that are also much more expensive and harder to source.

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“I will make a bet today that what happened to the car regulation will happen to the SAF [Sustainable Aviation Fuels] regulation in Europe,” French energy giant TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné predicted at the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this month.

Carmakers provide a model on how to get the EU to backtrack. The bloc mandated that no CO2-emitting cars could be sold from 2035, essentially killing the combustion engine and replacing it with batteries (possibly with a minor role for hydrogen).

But many carmakers — allied with countries like Germany, Italy and automaking nations in Central Europe — pushed back, arguing that the 2035 mandate would destroy the car sector just as it is battling U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, sluggish demand and a rising threat from Chinese competitors.

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In the end, the European Commission gave way and watered down the 2035 mandate, which will now only aim to cut CO2 emissions by 90 percent.

Aviation demands

The aviation sector has a similar list of issues with the EU. It is taking aim at a host of other climate policies, such as including aviation in the bloc's cap-and-trade Emissions Trading System and intervening on non-CO2 impacts of airplanes like contrails — the ice clouds produced by airplanes that have an effect on global warming.

Brussels introduced several regulations over the last 15 years to address the growing climate impact of air transport, which accounts for about 3 percent of global CO2 emissions. Those policies include the obligation to use sustainable aviation fuels, to put a price on carbon emissions and to take action on non-CO2 emissions.

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The ReFuelEU regulation requires all airlines to use SAF for at least 2 percent of their fuel mix starting this year. That mandate rises to 6 percent from 2030, 20 percent from 2035 and 70 percent by 2050.

“Today, all airline companies are fighting even the 6 percent … which is easy to reach to be honest,” Pouyanné said, but then warned, “20 percent five years after makes zero sense.”

He is echoed by CEOs like Ryanair's combative Michael O'Leary, who called the SAF mandate "nonsense."

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Brussels-based airline lobbies are not calling for the SAF mandate to be killed, rather they are demanding a book-and-claim system. Under such a scheme, airlines could claim carbon credits for a certain amount of SAF, even if they don't use it in their own aircraft. They would buy it at an airport where it's available and then let other airlines use it.

That would make it easier for airlines to meet the SAF mandate even if the fuel is not easily available. However, so far the Commission is opposed.

Lobbying battle

The car coalition only worked because industry allied with countries, and there are signs of that happening with aviation.

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The sector's lobbying effort to slash the EU carbon pricing could find an ally in the new Italo-German team-up to promote competitiveness. READ MORE

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Excerpt from Influence Map:

New InfluenceMap analysis shows how the aviation industry reinforced a long-standing lobbying pattern against the expansion of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) to all flights departing the European Economic Area (EEA) in the run up to the policy review in 2025. Support for the policy among low-cost carriers declined, while legacy airlines and industry associations continued their long-standing efforts to block the expansion of the geographical scope of the policy.
Accelerating opposition to a full scope EU ETS comes amid growing aviation industry advocacy to weaken other binding climate regulations in Europe, threatening the rapid emissions reductions essential to meeting the EU's climate goals. This change in advocacy, alongside the failure to strengthen the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) at the International Civil Aviation Organization’s 42nd Assembly in October 2025, calls into question the credibility of industry-led technological solutions and voluntary measures to address the sector’s climate impact.
Despite previously supporting the extension of the EU ETS to all flights departing the EEA, easyJet and Ryanair did not back the extension in 2025. Ryanair instead advocated to weaken the EU ETS by excluding intra-EEA flights. At the same time, easyJet’s stance on CORSIA shifted significantly, from questioning its effectiveness to supporting its implementation, in line with industry association positions. As a result, the previously reported split between short-haul and long-haul airlines' positions on the EU ETS, observed in 2021–2024, has narrowed.
Long-haul airlines and industry associations continued to oppose the extension of the scope of the policy in 2025. Airbus and International Airlines Group (IAG) opposed applying the EU ETS to all departing flights, while Air France-KLM emphasized numerous concerns with the proposal. Airlines for America (A4A), Airlines for Europe (A4E), and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) advocated for the repeal and replacement of the EU ETS for intra-EEA flights with CORSIA, which would significantly weaken emissions reductions. A4E and IAG also advocated to effectively delay the expansion of the scope.
A small set of actors, including Schiphol Airport, Wizz Air, the SASHA coalition, and SkyNRG, continued to support expanding the ETS to all departing flights, arguing that such an expansion would provide regulatory certainty and unlock substantial climate finance.
The review of the EU ETS for aviation presents a crucial window of opportunity for the European Union to regulate emissions of all flights departing the EEA and guide the sector toward science-aligned pathways. Long-haul flights, which account for most aviation emissions, remain largely unregulated. By July 2026, the Commission will assess whether the global CORSIA offsetting scheme is sufficient to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. If deemed insufficient, the Commission could propose extending the EU ETS to all flights departing from the EEA.

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Aviation’s Shifting Climate Advocacy in 2025

At the same time, opposition from the aviation industry to other key climate policies required to decarbonize the sector, both globally and in the EU, grew in 2025.

Despite prior support from the aviation industry as recently as November 2023, many airlines publicly expressed doubt about achieving a 2050 net-zero goal in 2025. In an October 2025 article, Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary claimed “we’re not going to get to net zero by 2050,” and in a March 2025 article, Airbus’ CEO stressed that the goal may “take a bit more time.” Alongside this, in an April 2025 article, IATA’s CEO, Willie Walsh, called for the target to be “reevaluated,” citing growing concern among airline CEOs about rising costs.
Airlines are also increasingly critical of the EU’s sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) mandate in the first year of its implementation. During the A4E summit in April 2025, Air France-KLM CEO and A4E Chair Ben Smith stated that “the SAF does not exist, ... we don’t see a path toward the amount we need to reach the mandate.” Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary went further, advocating to delay the EU SAF mandate. IATA has also frequently opposed the EU SAF mandate, including in a December 2025 press release.

These oppositional positions emerged after the industry leveraged the promise of SAF as the cornerstone of its decarbonization plans for years, with IATA claiming that SAF will deliver 62% of aviation’s emissions reductions by 2050. The industry has used this narrative to oppose binding climate policies, with many players suggesting that regulatory measures are unnecessary because SAF will facilitate the sector’s decarbonization. For example, in a June 2025 call for evidence, Airbus dismissed environmental flight bans as ineffective and advocated for a “technology-driven” approach, including SAF. READ MORE