Sustainable Aviation: How the Sector can Cope with Major EU Environmental Goals

The transport sector has been severely affected by the restrictive mobility measures that it has been necessary to adopt in order to contain the COVID-19 outbreak. In terms of environmental sustainability, the pandemic has inevitably caused a significant decrease in air traffic and aviation emissions. According to the latest Eurocontrol’s data, CO2 emissions from flights declined by a medium percentage of 57% in 2020. At any rate, this certainly cannot be considered as a (temporary) solution to the problem represented by the high quantity of greenhouse gases emitted by air transport. As evident, the upward growth in emissions will resume (and is likely to resume, albeit slowly) in conjunction with the recovery in air traffic demand, unless the aviation sector and governments take further measures to ensure the compatibility between the aviation sector’s growth and setting climate objectives. Several legislative processes were already underway at the EU level to support the aviation sector’s decarbonization, and the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis (as known, characterized by demand shocks, supply chain disruptions, decrease in travel and tourism, reduced connectivity and difficulties for transport operators, to the point that no other industry has been so hugely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as the air transport and tourism sector) can represent a further driving force towards a sustainable and smart transport system, following a coordinated EU approach to transport activity and connectivity, overcoming the crisis and strengthening the EU’s strategic autonomy. It is therefore clear that these premises must be brought back to the principles established in the European Green Deal Communication, which launched a new growth strategy for the EU that aims to transform the EU into a fair and prosperous society with a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy, highlighting again the Commission’s ambition to increase its climate targets and make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. From a regulatory point of view, the EU has been promoting the legislative initiative for years, in particular in the field of emission trading rules. Notably, the EU ETS is the cornerstone of the European climate policy as well as a prototype regime with respect to all other similar experiences; the current ETS legislation was revised in 2018 to deliver a 43% reduction in EU ETS emissions by 2030 compared to 2005, coherent with an EU economy-wide emissions reduction target of at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990. By far the most controversial point of the EU ETS – which raised strong reactions by air carriers – was its application to all emissions from all flights taking off from or landing in the EU, even if the carrier was a non-EU airline and even though the majority of the emissions from that flight would all be emitted outside EU airspace. Therefore, the ETS Directive has been widely criticized by non-EU airlines and governments and has been subject to a challenge by the Air Transport Association of America before the English High Court, which was referred to the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ). In December 2011 the ECJ ruled that the ETS Directive was not contrary neither to the Chicago Convention nor to general principles of international law, causing more and stronger reactions, especially by non-EU carriers. In the light of the increased necessity and value of the European Green Deal due to the very severe effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the European Commission recently announced proposals to update the aforesaid Directive and to implement the ICAO Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Civil Aviation (CORSIA). Moreover, based on the same approach, on the 9th December 2020, the European Commission presented its ‘Sustainable and Smart Mobility Strategy - putting European transport on track for the future’, together with an Action Plan composed by 82 initiatives. This strategy can be considered as the foundation of the green, digital and resilient transformation of the EU transport system following the pandemic, in order to reach a 90% cut in emissions by 2050, as a main result of a smart, competitive, safe, accessible and affordable transport system. The strategy contained in the Communication can be defined as a transversal and multilevel study, aimed at guiding and coordinating European legislative policies in order to pursue and achieve the objectives set in terms of environmental sustainability of transport. In light of the above, and with particular regard to the aviation sector, it is therefore evident that key stakeholders representing EU and national policymakers, airlines, airports, technology manufacturers, air traffic control, and civil society are called to operate in an interconnected way and each to the extent of their competence, in order for the EU to become a climate-neutral economy by 2050, while also working towards a zero-pollution ambition.