Aviation

There has been rapid passenger growth in air travel in recent years, with increased leisure time travel and the advent of low cost airlines acting as additional drivers to economic growth. Emissions from the international aviation sector accounted for 3.1% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the EU-27 in 2009. See www.eea.europa.eu for further details. While the overall contribution of aviation to greenhouse gas emissions is considerably lower than road transport, this contribution is growing at a significant rate.
 
The IPCC has estimated that aviation is responsible for approximately 3.5% of anthropogenic climate change and has predicted that aviation’s contribution could grow to 5-15% of the total contribution by 2050 if action is not taken to tackle these emissions. In an effort to tackle aviation’s small but fast-growing contribution to climate change, the EU issued a legislative proposal in December 2006, suggesting a cap on CO₂ emissions for all planes arriving or departing from EU airports, while requiring airlines to trade in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.
 
This cost of this cap and trade system on the airlines may lead to increased costs of flights for the consumer in line with the “polluter pays principle”.  In addition, some companies are offering consumers the option to offset their personal aviation emissions using a number of options. The Irish Government has in place since 2007 an offsetting scheme for business flights taken by ministers and civil servants.