The European Commission should extend the scope of the EU emissions trading system (ETS) to all flights departing the region as part of its upcoming review of the scheme, a group of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and associations said this week.
The lack of inclusion of an estimated 70pc of EU aviation emissions "severely weakens the carbon price signal" for the sector and undermines the bloc's emissions reduction targets, 21 signatories — including NGOs Carbon Market Watch, CAN Europe and Bellona, the Aviation Environment Federation, and European sustainable business federation Ecopreneur — said in a letter to commission officials.
Airlines paid an effective carbon price of around €22/t ($26/t) of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) in 2025, they said. Argus' assessment of the benchmark front-year EU ETS contract averaged €74.91/t CO2e last year.
The EU ETS currently applies only to intra-European Economic Area flights, with international journeys exempted to allow the UN to develop its Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (Corsia). But the commission is scheduled as part of its ETS review in July to examine whether Corsia is sufficient, or if international departures should be covered by the ETS.
The current reliance on Corsia to tackle international aviation emissions is "problematic", the signatories said, as offsets do not guarantee actual emissions cuts in the aviation sector and the scheme's design means that it will cover only 26pc of EU international emissions by 2035. A number of countries including the US, China and India have also not formally adopted the scheme.
Adding international departures to the EU ETS could also raise almost €14bn in revenues by 2030, the letter said.
Emissions from aviation activities covered by the EU ETS stood at around 61.8mn t CO2e last year, provisional data released by the commission earlier this month show. This was up from 61.5mn t CO2e in 2024, and the highest since 2019.
A draft commission document seen by Argus this week proposes additional requirements for offsets to be used for Corsia compliance by EU-based airlines, which if adopted could render the entire existing supply of credits tagged for approval under the scheme's first phase ineligible.
