Europe: Associations speak out on risk of EU ETS, CORSIA overlap

Airline associations have jointly called on the EC to align the EU emissions trading scheme (EU ETS) with ICAO’s CORSIA initiative. The rare unanimous call came from 11 airline associations, spanning every region of the world. In a joint letter, the associations urged the EC to “take all necessary measures” to fully implement CORSIA, removing unnecessary EU ETS overlap and duplication. “The associations strongly believe that the EU ETS monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) requirements for international flights must be aligned with the CORSIA standards and recommended practices (SARPs),” the bodies said. If this is not done, the airlines said they will be faced with two separate sets of rules for monitoring, reporting and verifying emissions. Concerns centre on the risk of overlapping compliance requirements between EU ETS and CORSIA from 2021, when the bodies say national and regional schemes will no longer be needed.<br/>