{"id":2720,"date":"2021-07-15T00:58:36","date_gmt":"2021-07-15T00:58:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/travelcommunication.net\/?p=28086"},"modified":"2021-07-15T00:58:36","modified_gmt":"2021-07-15T00:58:36","slug":"iata-tax-is-not-the-answer-to-aviation-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/global-travel-news\/iata-tax-is-not-the-answer-to-aviation-sustainability\/","title":{"rendered":"IATA: Tax is Not the Answer to Aviation Sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div> <a href=\"https:\/\/travelcommunication.net\/aviation\/airlines\/iata-tax-is-not-the-answer-to-aviation-sustainability\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"IATA Tax is Not the Answer to Aviation Sustainability-AIRLINEHUB-TRAVELINDEX\" src=\"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/iata-tax-is-not-the-answer-to-aviation-sustainability.jpg\" alt=\"IATA: Tax is Not the Answer to Aviation Sustainability\" width=\"500\" height=\"283\" style=\"max-width: 100%; height: auto;\" \/><\/a> <\/div>\n<p>Geneva, Switzerland, July 15, 2021 \/ TRAVELINDEX \/ The International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned that the reliance on taxation as the solution for cutting aviation emissions in the EU\u2019s \u2018Fit for 55\u2019 proposal is counter-productive to the goal of sustainable aviation. EU policy needs to support practical emission reduction measures such as incentives for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) and modernization of air traffic management.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAviation is committed to decarbonization as a global industry. We don\u2019t need persuading, or punitive measures like taxes to motivate change. In fact, taxes siphon money from the industry that could support emissions\u2019 reducing investments in fleet renewal and clean technologies. To reduce emissions, we need governments to implement a constructive policy framework that, most immediately, focuses on production incentives for SAF and delivering the Single European Sky,\u201d said Willie Walsh, IATA\u2019s Director General.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Comprehensive Approach<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Achieving aviation decarbonization requires a combination of measures.\u00a0These include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Sustainable Aviation Fuels <\/strong>which reduce emissions by up to 80% compared to traditional jet fuel. Insufficient supply and high prices have limited airline uptake to 120 million litres in 2021 \u2014 a small fraction of the 350 billion litres that airlines would consume in a \u2018normal\u2019 year.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Market-based measures <\/strong>to manage emissions until technology solutions are fully developed. The industry supports the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) as a global measure for all international aviation. It avoids creating a patchwork of uncoordinated national or regional measures such as the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, that can undermine international cooperation. Overlapping schemes can lead to the same emissions being paid for more than once. IATA is extremely concerned by the Commission\u2019s proposal that European States would no longer implement CORSIA on all international flights.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Single European Sky (SES)<\/strong> to reduce unnecessary emissions from fragmented air traffic management (ATM) and resulting inefficiencies. Modernizing European ATM through the SES initiative would cut \u00a0Europe\u2019s aviation emissions between 6-10%, but national governments continue to delay implementation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Radical new clean technologies<\/strong>. While it is unlikely that electric or hydrogen propulsion could have a significant impact on aviation emissions within the EU \u2018Fit for 55\u2019 timeframe of 2030, the development of these technologies is ongoing and needs to be supported.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cAviation\u2019s near-term vision is to provide sustainable, affordable air transport for all European citizens with SAF-powered fleets, operating with efficient air traffic management. We should all be worried that the EU\u2019s big idea to decarbonize aviation is making jet fuel more expensive through tax. That will not get us to where we need to be. Taxation will destroy jobs. Incentivizing SAF will improve energy independence and create sustainable jobs. The focus must be on encouraging the production of SAF, and delivering the Single European Sky,\u201d said Walsh.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Promoting SAF<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The most practical near-term solution to reducing emissions is SAF. Energy transitions are successful when production incentives drive down the price of alternative fuels while driving supplies up. The EU \u2018Fit for 55\u2019 proposal does not include direct measures that will achieve this. Without specific measures to reduce SAF costs, it does, however, propose a mandate to increase SAF utilization to 2% of jet fuel use by 2025 and at least 5% by 2030.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaking SAF cheaper will accelerate aviation\u2019s energy transition and improve Europe\u2019s competitiveness as a green economy. But making jet fuel more expensive through taxation scores an \u2018own goal\u2019 on competitiveness that does little to accelerate the commercialization of SAF,\u201d said Walsh.<\/p>\n<p>Mandating a gradual transition to SAF is a less efficient policy compared to comprehensive production incentives, but it may contribute to making SAF more affordable and widely available in Europe, but only under the following key conditions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It is limited to EU-only flights. This will limit the negative impacts on the competitiveness of European air transport and potential political challenges from other countries<\/li>\n<li>It is accompanied by policy measures to ensure a competitive market and appropriate production incentives. The mandated use of SAF must not allow energy companies to engage in uncompetitive practices with the resulting high costs being borne by airlines and passengers.<\/li>\n<li>It is targeted at locations which have substantial airline operations and close proximity to SAF refineries.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Concrete actions on Single European Sky are urgently needed<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The SES has been on the drawing board for 20 years but has made little progress despite the promise of a 6-10% improvement in environmental performance, safer operations and reduced delays.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEurope\u2019s national politicians are quick to lecture airlines on the efforts industry should be making on the environment. But they are silent when it comes to areas of their own responsibility. Just recently the European Council failed to show any leadership to cut emissions by harmonizing European air traffic management. Moreover, the constant absence of political support from states on the SES proposals undermines the credibility of the \u2018Fit for 55\u2019 proposal and the credibility of Europe\u2019s determination to drive real solutions for sustainability,\u201d said Walsh.<\/p>\n<p><em>First published at<a href=\"https:\/\/travelcommunication.net\/aviation\/airlines\/iata-tax-is-not-the-answer-to-aviation-sustainability\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> TravelCommunication.net<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Geneva, Switzerland, July 15, 2021 \/ TRAVELINDEX \/ The International Air Transport Association (IATA) warned that the reliance on taxation as the solution for cutting aviation emissions in the EU\u2019s \u2018Fit for 55\u2019 proposal is counter-productive to the goal of sustainable aviation. EU policy needs to support practical emission reduction measures such as incentives for &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4167,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[736,104,52,43,90,87,37,111,45,46,44,14,48,59,47],"class_list":["post-2720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-global-travel-news","tag-airlinehhub-com","tag-airlines","tag-featured","tag-global-travel-news","tag-iata","tag-international-organizations","tag-news","tag-travel-and-tourism-foundation","tag-travel-communication","tag-travel-index","tag-travel-news-hub","tag-travelindex","tag-unwtp-news","tag-updates","tag-wttc-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.travelindex.org\/media\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}