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The European emissions of airlines are about to go beyond the pre-pale levels this year, highlighting the fight of the aviation industry to be decarbonized while it puts pressure on Brussels for greek rules.
Carbon dioxide flight emissions by European airlines are expected to reach 195.2 million tonnes this year, according to environmental and environmental group forecasts, 4% above the 2019 levels.
This volume would be greater than the 187.6 million tonnes produced by the sector last year, when the industry carried out an almost complete recovery of the pre-Pandemic flight levels according to T & e.
European airlines have collected collectively to reach Net Zero by 2050 thanks to a mixture of new technologies, including alternative fuels, as well as carbon trading patterns and more efficient planes, engines and air traffic management.
But the carriers complained that the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is too expensive, and that it is not enough, and last month urged the EU to soften some of its environmental rules.
The general directors of four of the largest airlines in the region, including Ryanair and Lufthansa, have said that the EU will probably have to delay the rules that force fuel companies to provide airlines with an increasing amount of SAF each year.
Airlines have said that if the 2% demanded this year, an increase at 6% by 2030 would be impossible given the current production levels and low investments in new fuels by oil majors. Distinct rules of sustainable fuel from the United Kingdom will require 10% by 2030, which, according to airlines, would be difficult to achieve,
The bosses have also called the flagship programs for carbon pricing from the EU and the United Kingdom for aviation, which takes charges on carbon emitted on theft in Europe, to be attenuated and driving online with a cheaper global standard.
In a press release, the EU said that the growing number of flights “underlines the need for action to achieve our climate commitments”, adding: “Aviation must do more”.
Airlines produce approximately 4% of total greenhouse gas emissions from the block, the jump recorded by T & E to come while the trip has exploded since the end of the Pandemic COVID-19. Eurocontrol, the air traffic management organization, has noted that many EU countries already have air traffic above the 2019 levels and expects flights covering all Europe to exceed 2019 in the first half of 2025.
Brussels is currently examining the scope of his emission trading scheme (ETS), the main tool on the EU scale to reduce emissions. The scheme is currently invoicing only to airlines for flight emissions in Europe.
Flights outside the region are exempt and subject to the International Corsica Compensation Plan, which has much less pollution. This means that the most polluting long-haul flights pay less to emit carbon than shorter flights in Europe. T & E data has shown that the route with the highest emissions in 2024 was London in New York, which was responsible for 1.4 million tonnes of CO₂.
The Commission said that if the corsia was not reinforced, it could propose to extend the scope of ETS to thefts leaving the EU to other destinations, although analysts said that this was likely to respect fierce resistance to countries like the United States. T & E estimated that the expansion of ETS at all flights would have cost airlines of around 7.5 billion euros last year.
Krisztina Hencz, head of aviation policy at T&E, said that EU carbon market examination was an opportunity to “rectify an escape” and develop to include all emissions from airlines. “The sector continues to dodge the true cost of its pollution,” she said.
Airlines4europe, the commercial group of industry, said that industry in Europe “paved the way for the decarbonization of aviation”. Growing even more strict restrictions on European airlines can make the headlines, but it does not do much to reduce global aviation emissions – and the risks undermining the leadership of Europe in clean aviation. »»
