IATA director general Giovanni Bisignani lambasted European governments for their alleged greediness for environmentally inefficient taxes here yesterday.
“I challenge the French presidency to turn Europe’s biggest environmental embarrassment into a success story,” Bisignani said during an industry forum on sustainable aviation hosted by the SBAC. The airline lobbyist was referring to the planned inclusion of aviation into the EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS). “Governments act fast when they decide on new taxes,” he said. Adding up the UK’s air passenger duty, the cost of the ETS and other taxes in the Netherlands, “This is enough!” he exclaimed.
Bisignani noted there is no guarantee the “e3.5 billion [$5.42 billion] collected from CO2 allowance auctioning in the ETS will be spent on the environment. IATA supports the principle of emissions trading–as long as it is fair, global and effective,” he said. Therefore, the EU ETS should not apply to intercontinental flights, as the EU has no right to rule international skies, he claimed. From 2012, the ETS is to include any flight that lands in or takes off from an EU airport.
