Author Archives: Jennifer Andreassen

Brazil's President Rousseff should veto disastrous Forest Code

By | Published: April 26, 2012

EDF joined the chorus of Brazilian and global environmental groups in calling for Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff to veto the revisions of the country's main forest protection legislation passed last night by the House of Representatives that, if signed into law, would severely roll back environmental protection for the Amazon forest and other threatened ecosystems.

Brazil's Congress has sent President Dilma Rousseff the Forest Code, which would essentially legalize deforestation on vast areas of land. Rousseff can veto parts of or all of the law. (Photo credit to Flickr user dilmarousseff)

By giving amnesty for past illegal deforestation and opening up new land for deforestation, the Forest Code would essentially legalize deforestation on vast amounts of land.

This is a big problem, because global emissions from deforestation contribute about 15% of greenhouse gas emissions — as much as all the world’s cars, trucks, ships and airplanes combined – and Brazil is home to about 40% of the world's rain forests.

Brazil's relatively recent success in reducing deforestation in the Amazon has made it a global leader in reducing carbon emissions, but if President Rousseff approves the House-passed law, the country risks reversing that trend.

EDF’s Director of Tropical Forest Policy, Steve Schwartzman said Brazil's historic achievement in reducing deforestation in the Amazon nearly 80% since 2005 is at serious risk:

Brazil’s Forest Code has been instrumental in the country’s success in curbing carbon emissions, but President Rousseff is now faced with a deeply flawed, probably unenforceable law that would offer near-total amnesty for past illegal deforestation.

Brazilians overwhelmingly support stopping deforestation in the Amazon. About 85% of them want Amazon deforestation to stop no matter what, according to a public opinion poll taken in the last year.

Schwartzman said:

President Rousseff should respect the views of the vast majority of the Brazilian public that wants an end to Amazon deforestation and veto this bill.

Rousseff, from as far back as her presidential campaign, has repeatedly declared she would not accept legislation that amnesties past illegal deforestation. Brazilian law gives her as president the right to veto parts or all of the bill.

Given Brazil's position as host of June's global Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development, and with the great importance of the Forest Code to the country's forests and the world's climate, all eyes are on President Rousseff's next move.

Posted in Brazil, Deforestation, News |: | 1 Response

U.S. airlines give up legal battle against Europe’s anti-pollution law

By | Published: March 28, 2012

It’s official: U.S. airlines have given up their legal challenge to the European Union’s landmark law limiting global warming pollution from aviation.

Airlines have dropped a challenge in the UK High Court to the aviation directive three months after a ruling from the European Court of Justice, above, upheld the law. (Thanks and photo credit to Gwenaël Piaser)

It was an abrupt move by United, American, and their trade association, Airlines for America, none of which gave an explanation for dropping the case in the UK High Court in London less than 48 hours before the Court's scheduled hearing.

We can only guess that after the European Court of Justice's strong ruling  upholding the EU directive as consistent with international law, the airlines' lawyers realized their efforts in the UK court would be fruitless.

EDF, with the transatlantic coalition of environmental groups that intervened in the litigation, said today that the airlines' move presents an opportunity for industry to support a global deal to reduce emissions from aviation.

In a joint statement today from Aviation Environment Federation, Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice, EDF, Transport & Environment, and WWF-UK, we said:

Although we are pleased this avoids a pointless legal challenge in the UK, it is disappointing that U.S airlines are refusing to accept the ECJ ruling, and may simply be moving the battlefield elsewhere. …

United States, Europe, and other countries [should] work together with airlines and civil society to craft a global solution and enforceable domestic measures.

U.S. House industry-dominated "roundtable discussion" ignores significant developments

In related news, today the U.S. House of Representatives aviation subcommittee hosted a “roundtable discussion” on the EU law and "its impact on the U.S. aviation industry, international law, and global trade.”

However, in the 1.5 hours when participants from the Federal Aviation Administration, State Department and aviation industry delivered short remarks and fielded questions from Members of Congress, the latest updates from the law were noticeably absent. No mention was made that just three months ago, the EU’s highest court had ruled strongly against the airlines, or that yesterday the airlines had given up their latest challenge to the law.

Eyes now turn to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), where its Secretary General Raymond Benjamin has proposed to agree, by the end of the year, on global measures to reduce aviation emissions. We hope airlines use this opportunity to support a global deal.

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Effort in Moscow to coordinate attack on EU aviation emissions law fizzles

By | Published: February 23, 2012

Countries have failed in Moscow to agree on any joint moves against the European Union's pioneering law to curb emissions from aviation at a two-day meeting that ended there yesterday.

The declaration coming out of the Moscow meeting, which was reportedly attended by representatives of countries and the aviation industry, states the 23 signing countries will merely "consider" taking actions against Europe for its pioneering law to curb emissions from aviation. EDF's Annie Petsonk said "Today's failure to reach agreement on a coordinated attack indicates cooler heads may have prevailed." (Thanks and photo credit to Flickr user Aleksander Markin)

The meeting, which was preceded by a great deal of hype about 26 countries' supposedly working toward a "basket of countermeasures" against Europe, produced a joint declaration signed by 23 countries that included a "Basket of ACTIONS/ MEASURES."

However,  yesterday's Joint declaration of the Moscow meeting on inclusion of international civil aviation in the Eu-ETS only says countries will "consider taking actions/ measures" against the EU. No single coordinated attack emerged from the meeting, and Russia's Deputy Transportation Minister Valery Okulov said in a press conference that countries themselves "will choose the most effective and reliable measures that will help to cancel or postpone the implementation of the EU ETS (Emissions Trading System)."

In EDF's statement following the meeting, Annie Petsonk, EDF's International Counsel said:

The airlines ginned up a laundry list of actions they wanted governments to take so that airlines don't have to comply with a reasonable law to cut global warming pollution.

Today's failure to reach agreement on a coordinated attack indicates cooler heads may have prevailed, and if so, they are to be commended.

This Moscow gathering was a follow-up to one that took place in India last September, where the U.S., Saudi Arabia and 23 other countries signed a statement that suggested opposition to the EU law, the world’s first program to reduce global warming pollution from aviation.

ICAO action to cut aviation pollution is critical

The first action/measure in Moscow's "Basket" is launching an "Article 84" case under the Chicago Convention on Civil Aviation — a formal protest against the EU law at the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

Countries, the aviation industry and environmentalists have all called for a global system to be developed through ICAO, but 14 years of negotiations has yielded nothing.

ICAO Secretary General Raymond Benjamin had warned weeks prior to the Moscow meeting that a decision by any nation to launch an Article 84 case would distract ICAO from designing and obtaining global agreement on effective, market-based measures to address aviation greenhouse gas emissions.

EDF thinks such constructive participation can help ICAO achieve an effective and durable outcome, which is the best path toward resolving the current dispute. Petsonk said:

Had an Article 84 case been launched, that surely would have called into question the seriousness of the claims of industry and some nations that they truly want a solution in ICAO.

Speaking of industry, the airline industry trade association International Air Transport Association (IATA) was reportedly present at the meeting. However, EDF knows of no “civil society” group invited to the Moscow meeting. Petsonk said in EDF's statement:

With such a limited invite list, the meeting didn’t present an opportunity for a balanced discussion. Civil society must be afforded equal opportunity to participate in ICAO’s work going forward. Such participation can help ICAO achieve an effective and durable outcome.

These countries have agreed to meet again later this year in Saudi Arabia.

Posted in Aviation, News |: | 1 Response

In significant victory, Europe’s highest court upholds EU law that curbs aviation pollution

By | Published: December 21, 2011

Early this morning, the highest court in Europe read out a decision in Luxembourg that evoked cheers across the environmental community: the Court of Justice of the European Union had decided the world’s first program to reduce global warming pollution from aviation, the EU Aviation Directive, is fully compliant with international law.

The decision was a strong finish at the EU court, where United/Continental and American Airlines — and their trade association, known at the time as Air Transport Association of America (now called Airlines for America) — had challenged the legality of the Aviation Directive, and EDF, in partnership with five other U.S. and European environmental organizations, intervened in support of the EU law.

EDF, with our other European and American co-intervenors, applauded today’s decision, saying in a joint statement:

Today’s decision makes clear Europe's innovative law to reduce emissions from international flights is fully consistent with international law, does not infringe on the sovereignty of other nations, and is distinct from the charges and taxes subject to treaty limitations.

Today's outcome was generally anticipated, as an Advocate General – a senior legal advisor appointed by the Court of Justice of the European Union – issued a formal recommendation to the Court supporting the legality of the EU law in October.  That opinion called the airlines’ challenges “unconvincing”, “untenable”, “erroneous” and based on a “highly superficial reading” of the Aviation Directive.

Aviation is one of the fastest-growing sources of greenhouse gas emissions, rising 3 to 4% per year.  Though airlines often say they agree with environmental groups that these growing emissions need to be addressed, until now, the sector has escaped regulations that would require emissions reductions.  But the EU Aviation Directive, the very law airlines were suing to get out of complying with, will cut 183 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) annually by 2020, the equivalent of taking 30 million cars off the road every year.

While the airlines were suing in the EU, however, at home they were lauding their environmental performance in advertising and media campaigns.

Annie Petsonk, EDF’s International Counsel, referenced these claims in her statement after the decision was announced:

It is high time airlines actually live up to their green claims, and comply with the EU law, which will cut pollution and spark low-carbon innovation.  Americans invented the airplane, now it’s time for us to create climate-friendly skies. The EU’s leadership challenges U.S. airlines to take charge and deliver to the flying public clean and green air travel.

This decision on the case now returns to the UK High Court, where airlines had originally brought the suit challenging UK regulations implementing the law, and which will implement the recommendations of today’s ruling.

And in the meantime, the Aviation Directive begins January 1 – now with legal affirmation – to hold all airlines accountable for their emissions from flights using European airports.  We hope the airlines use the new year as a fresh start to reduce their emissions, fly cleaner, and embrace the opportunity provided by the Aviation Directive to move to a lower-carbon aviation sector.

Posted in Aviation, News |: | 12 Responses

Deep into overtime, countries in Durban lay groundwork for future global climate agreement

By | Published: December 12, 2011

Breaking the record for the longest UN climate negotiations ever, the two-week-long international climate talks in Durban, South Africa wrapped up early yesterday morning with the world taking a small, but essential, step toward a global agreement to curb climate change.

The UN climate conference went into a second day past its scheduled end at the Durban International Conference Center, but its resulting Durban Platform has produced a good first step toward a global climate agreement.

It had been a long night leading up to the conclusion: enthusiastic soccer fans had taken a break from the dragging negotiations late Saturday night at the conference center's cafe and bar, seemingly the home to the only television not tuned to the center's closed-circuit channels, to drink local Castle beer and watch Barcelona's 3-1 victory over Real Madrid; and by the end of the negotiations at dawn on Sunday morning, most attendees — including a number of the negotiators and ministers covering critical issues at the talks — had already left, a significant number of them to catch their flights home.

But applause rang loudly from the remaining countries and non-governmental organizations in the large Baobob plenary room when the president of the conference, South African Minister of International Relations Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, wrapped up the UN climate negotiations' 17th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP-17) at 5 a.m. Sunday.  Having run into a second day — 35 hours after its supposed 6 p.m. Friday deadline — Durban's conference now holds the record for the UN's longest climate negotiations.

The Durban Platform

The "Durban Platform" reached by countries at COP-17 reflects the "first small but essential steps toward creating a new global agreement to curb climate change," Jennifer Haverkamp, director of EDF's international climate program, said in a statement.

For the first time all major emitting nations, including China and India, have agreed on the need to move forward – and to do so together.

The challenge is that we begin the talks from the lowest common denominator of every party’s aspirations. For this effort to be successful, countries need to be ambitious in their commitments and to refuse to use these negotiations as just another stalling tool.

Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane

The president of COP-17, Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, speaking at the closing session of the UN climate conference early Sunday morning.

The conference also saw two big wins on individual policy issues:

  1. Finance: Accomplishing one of the highest priorities for this conference, countries agreed to start building infrastructure for the "Green Climate Fund,"  which is dedicated to helping developing countries address and adapt to climate change.  Now that the Fund has been launched, one of the highest priorities for countries is to find the public and private money to finance it.
  2. Avoiding deforestation: Countries included carbon markets as a possible funding source to pay for policies to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+).  This represents a major achievement for countries, as markets are important in achieving the large-scale, sustainable funding needed to keep carbon-rich tropical forests alive.
However, the Durban Platform included a less-than-positive move in rules to measure emissions from land-use and forestry.  In EDF's closing statement, Jennifer Haverkamp explained:

An unfortunate development in the Durban talks was the finalization of rules for measuring emissions from forests in developed countries that may allow countries to increase their forest emissions without penalty by almost half a billion tons of emissions a year.

Some countries will be rewarded even if they increase emissions from forests, while others will receive massive windfalls for doing nothing.

Read more about the Durban outcomes in EDF's closing statement and Reuters' wrap-up analysis.  We will be posting our own further analysis on the Durban outcomes soon.

Posted in Deforestation, Durban (COP-17), Forestry, News, REDD, UN negotiations |: | 2 Responses

Secretary Clinton urged to not block process on global climate deal at UN Durban negotiations

By | Published: November 30, 2011

EDF joined 15 other major non-governmental organizations in urging U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to not block progress on a global climate deal going on now in the UN climate negotiations in Durban, South Africa.

In a letter sent to Secretary Clinton, the groups highlighted a 2008 speech from then President-elect Obama during which he said combating climate change was one of the most urgent issues facing America and the world, and pledged:

Once I take office, you can be sure that the United States will once again engage vigorously in these negotiations, and help lead the world toward a new era of global cooperation on climate change.

But now, three years later in Durban, the groups say America:

risks being viewed not as a global leader on climate change, but as a major obstacle to progress.

The letter urged Secretary Clinton to direct U.S. negotiators to show more flexibility on the U.S. position for two major issues in the negotiations, which threatens to impede critically needed global cooperation:

  1. The mandate to launch negotiations for a comprehensive binding climate regime
  2. Climate finance

Jennifer Haverkamp, EDF’s international climate program director, said:

Domestically, despite the cacophony coming from Congress, the U.S. is making major strides using existing legal authorities to reduce air pollution from power plants, mobile sources, and factories in ways that will also significantly reduce U.S. carbon emissions over the next several years.

However, that doesn’t make up for the fact that the U.S. is going out of its way to stymie progress in Durban toward a binding new agreement.  In the remaining week and a half in Durban, the U.S. needs to clear the way for countries to move forward on preventing the catastrophic effect of global warming.

The groups again signaled in the letter their unhappiness with the U.S. opposition to the European Union’s pioneering anti-pollution law for aviation, calling for the U.S. to end its opposition to include aviation emissions within the European Union Emissions Trading System.

Signers of the letter, which was sent to Secretary Clinton yesterday and released publicly today, include: Center for International Environmental Law, Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, Environmental Defense Fund, Greenpeace USA, National Tribal Environmental Council, Native American Rights Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Oxfam America, Physicians for Social Responsibility, Population Action International, Population Connection, Sierra Club, Union of Concerned Scientists, The Wilderness Society, and World Wildlife Fund.

Posted in Aviation, Durban (COP-17), News, UN negotiations |: | 1 Response

Durban UN climate talks open to calls from African and world leaders for solutions

By | Published: November 28, 2011

The latest round of the UN climate negotiations opened on this balmy spring morning in the beach-side city of Durban, South Africa with strong affirmations of the urgent need to address climate change.

South African President Zuma addressed the opening session of the UN climate negotiations today in Durban.

In a series of powerful statements at the opening "plenary” at the conference of nearly 200 countries and almost 20,000 delegates, speakers expressed need for quick  and effective action on climate change, concern for their countries’ ability to adapt to climate change, and hope for what the next two weeks in Durban could accomplish.

Last year’s president of the conference, host country Mexico’s Patricia Espinosa, highlighted the successes of the 2010 negotiations in Cancun but cautioned “there is still certainly more to do.”  Then the conference presidency was  turned over to South Africa’s Minister of International Relations, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, who said “countries must find a common solution to secure the future for generations to come.”

Two speakers from African nations told of the severe consequences climate change was bringing to their home countries, and said Africa must play a significant role in these negotiations. UN Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres received loud applause when she opened her speech with a Zulu welcome; and South Africa’s President Zuma, concluded the session, thanking the UN for its confidence in Africa’s hosting the conference, and declaring climate change as not just an environmental challenge, but a holistic development challenge.

Jennifer Haverkamp, EDF's international climate program director said in a statement at the opening of the conference that “the world can’t just “sit back and do nothing.

We need to build on the efforts of individual countries and regions so that every nation does their part to reduce the emissions that are harming our way of life.

Environmental Defense Fund is urging the climate conference to move forward in four key areas:

  1. A negotiating work plan with concrete goals for the next two years and a clear path toward a comprehensive, binding agreement.
  1. Agreements on financing arrangements for the Green Climate Fund, which will be dedicated to helping developing countries address and adapt to climate change.
  1. Positive signals to the carbon market that there’s life after Durban, encouraging more countries to follow Europe, New Zealand, and most recently Australia’s lead in setting a domestic carbon price.
  1. Accounting rules for measuring emissions from land-use change and forestry that accurately determine whether countries have reduced their emissions and met their obligations.

Read more in our statement and comprehensive blog post on Durban expectations: Durban UN climate talks could see modest, incremental progress; What to watch at COP-17.

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Australia's landmark legislation will put price on carbon pollution, create world’s second-largest carbon-price system

By | Published: November 9, 2011

As expected, Australia’s upper house of Parliament voted yesterday to adopt a carbon price, which will compel Australia’s largest polluters, beginning July 1, 2012, to pay for their carbon pollution.

Australia will have the largest carbon-price system in the world outside Europe's, after its upper house approved the Clean Energy Future package of bills Nov. 8. The package of bills aims to cut emissions from coal-dependent Australia 80% by 2050 from 2000 levels.

The legislation’s passage will give Australia, which has the highest per capita emissions of any developed country in the world and uses even more coal than the United States, the largest carbon-price system in the world outside of the European Union.  (That is, the largest outside the EU until California’s program takes effect in January 2013; California last month approved the largest, first-ever economy-wide carbon market in North America, which could eventually link to other sub-national, national and regional markets around the world.)

EDF applauds Australia on its leadership on the vitally important problem of climate change.  This vote is another indication that more and more countries around the world – with the U.S. being a notable exception – are taking climate change seriously.  The legislation also  backs Australia’s international commitment to reduce emissions by between 5 and 25 per cent by 2020 from 2000 levels.

The Clean Energy Future Package

The Clean Energy Future package is made up of 18 bills that will assign a price to carbon starting July 1, 2012 and cut Australia’s emissions 5% below 2000 levels by 2020 (though the target can be strengthened based on science or international action), and 80% below 2000 levels by 2050.

Australia’s 400-500 largest emitters will be covered by the carbon price, which will take the form of a fixed price (starting at A$23 per metric ton) for the first three years, and shift to a carbon market emissions trading system in 2015.

As we mentioned when Australia’s lower house passed the clean energy legislation on October 11, the Clean Energy Future package will shift Australia’s energy towards cleaner and renewable sources by:

  1. Placing a price on carbon.
  2. Creating a market-based system with plans to link it with ‘credible international carbon markets or emissions trading schemes in other countries’ – like New Zealand and Europe – after 2015.
  3. Giving a big boost to renewable energy research and development and deployment through a new $10 billion financing vehicle, the “Clean Energy Finance Corporation.”

(The Southern Cross Climate Coalition has some more details on the legislation in its analysis, as does Natural Resources Defense Council’s Jake Schmidt in his post Congrats Australia! Law passed which will require mandatory carbon pollution reductions for major polluters.)

Climate groups in Australia welcomed the passage of the laws, as did:

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, who told reporters:

Today we have made history. … This is about what's right for the nation's future.

Deutsche Bank Australia carbon analyst Tim Jordan, who said:

This is a very positive step for the global effort on climate change. It shows that the world's most emissions-intensive advanced economy is prepared to use a market mechanism to cut carbon emissions in a low-cost way.

CEO of The Climate Institute John Connor, who said:

This is a vital cog in Australia's pollution reduction machinery with the potential to help cut around 1 billion tonnes of carbon pollution from the atmosphere between next year and 2020.

This vote means Australia now brings greater credibility going into international climate negotiations starting later this month in South Africa. It also puts wind in the sails of other jurisdictions about to introduce, or considering, emissions trading schemes which similarly price and limit carbon pollution.

The G20 Cannes Action Plan for Growth and Jobs even highlights the Australian legislation as an example of how members will “enhance competition and reduce distortions” in its plan to create “sustained, broad-based reforms to boost confidence, raise global output and create jobs.”

What’s next for Australia

Now, the Government moves into implementation mode, which means it will take to:

  • Establishing new institutions, including the Climate Change Authority (to recommend on future emissions targets); the Clean Energy Finance Corporation; and the Clean Energy Regulatory to oversee the market;
  • Finalizing contracts next year to close 2000 MW of brown coal power generation;
  • Working with New Zealand and EU officials on linking schemes after 2015.

Linkages to international carbon markets that are built into the system will also see Australia become a key player in the international offset market.

And Australian officials will be able to hold their heads high at the UN climate conference in Durban at the end of this year, as they promote their joint proposal with Norway for a roadmap to a 2015 global climate treaty.

Posted in News, Other |: | 5 Responses

U.S. House passes bill to make it illegal for U.S. airlines to comply with EU law to cut aviation emissions

By | Published: October 24, 2011

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill tonight that could worsen air pollution and force U.S. airlines to stop flying to Europe, or risk violating other nations’ laws at their and other U.S. companies’ expense.

The EU law that the House voted to block, the Aviation Directive, is a modest, non-discriminatory first step to tackling pollution from airlines, and was enacted several years ago after countries spent a dozen years failing to agree on a program in the International Civil Aviation Organization to cut carbon pollution.

The "European Union Emissions Trading Scheme Prohibition Act of 2011” (H.R. 2594) was introduced in July by Rep. John Mica (R-FL), among others, and would make it illegal for airlines to comply with the EU law, the only program in the world that sets enforceable limits on carbon pollution from aviation.

Ten environmental groups wrote in a letter to Representatives on Friday that the bill would worsen air pollution and make it impossible for U.S.-based airlines to provide service to and from Europe.

The groups, including EDF, ActionAid USA, Earthjustice, Environment America, Greenpeace USA, League of Conservation Voters, Natural Resources Defense Council, Oxfam America, Sierra Club, and World Wildlife Fund, said the House bill is “premised on fundamentally erroneous legal and policy assumptions,” because:

Contrary to the bill’s assumptions, the Aviation Directive is carefully crafted to fall well within the requirements of international law (and has been upheld as such in a rigorously reasoned preliminary decision of the European Court of Justice). It is non-discriminatory and applies even-handedly to all flights landing in or departing from EU airports regardless of origin or destination, and to the operators of those flights regardless of the airline’s home country. The program requires a 3% emissions reduction (compared to a 2004-2006 baseline) by 2013, and a 5% reduction by 2020; it is flexible in design, giving airlines multiple compliance options to meet these emissions control obligations. Moreover, flights arriving from countries with programs equivalent to the EU’s are exempted altogether.

House bill could make U.S. airlines outlaws, start trade war

In a statement after tonight’s vote, EDF’s International Counsel Annie Petsonk said the House’s passing this law could turn U.S. airlines into outlaws and ignite a trade war:

‪The House passing this bill is like another nation saying, 'We don't care if the U.S. has a law enacted by Congress and upheld by the U.S. courts — we're going to prohibit our companies from complying.’  It's unlikely that our Congress would let that kind of action go without retaliation. ‪

This bill could ignite a trade war that would put tens of thousands of U.S. jobs in jeopardy.  By barring U.S.-based airlines from complying with applicable law for flights traveling to EU airports, this bill would compel those airlines either to drop their EU routes or become scofflaws.  ‪It’s bizarre Congress would knowingly pass a law that compels U.S.-based airlines to become outlaws when they do business in the EU.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where there is no companion bill.

Meanwhile, three U.S. airlines — United/Continental and American — and their trade association, Air Transport Association of America (ATA), have also challenged the legality of the EU law in Europe's highest court. EDF, in partnership with US and European environmental organizations, has intervened in support of the EU law.

The European Court of Justice’s Advocate General released a preliminary opinion at the beginning of this month advising that the airlines' challenge had no merit, which EDF and our fellow co-intervenors called an “encouraging development.”  On Oct. 6, when the opinion came out, Petsonk said:

Airlines operate in a global market, and the reality is that those markets will be increasingly carbon-constrained. It’s time for the U.S. airlines to provide leadership and demonstrate that we can compete in the carbon-limited markets of the 21st century. No lawsuit will stop climate change or its effects, so it’s time to move forward and implement the solutions already available: Europe’s Aviation Directive.

The European Court of Justice is anticipated to issue its final ruling sometime in the beginning of next year.

Posted in Aviation |: | 6 Responses

On National Aviation Day, time for airlines to start flying greener

By | Published: August 19, 2011

It’s America’s National Aviation Day, an annual celebration of aviation that falls on airplane pioneer Orville Wright’s birthday.

Today would have been aviation pioneer Orville Wright's (right) 140th birthday. Now emissions from aviation are expected to quadruple by 2050 if left unregulated, but some U.S. airlines are trying to get out of a European anti-pollution law. (photo: NASA)

Today would have been Wright's 140th birthday, and a lot has happened in the world and within the aviation sector since the Wright Brothers took flight nearly a century ago.

With climate change an ever-increasing threat, and the need to reduce emissions ever more important, EDF has been engaged in aviation issues for more than a decade.

Left unregulated, airline emissions are expected to quadruple by 2050.

So it’s particularly unfortunate that three U.S. airlines — United/Continental and American — and their trade association, Air Transport Association of America (ATA), have challenged the legality of the world’s only policy to reduce emissions from aviation, Europe’s “Aviation Directive.”

EDF, in partnership with U.S. and European environmental organizations, has intervened in support of the EU law that a recent New York Times editorial called “a much needed first step to controlling a growing source of dangerous emissions.”  The case is pending in Europe's highest court.

But, even as the airlines are suing to get out of the anti-pollution law, they’re simultaneously lauding their environmental performances.  (Read more at American, United, Continental Airlines "Greenwashing", say environmental groups.)

EDF has publicly called on the airlines to fly cleaner, and one very effective means of doing so is by complying with the Aviation Directive, which holds all airlines accountable for their global warming pollution from flights to, from and within Europe.

The Aviation Directive offers airlines flexibility in how exactly they lower their emissions, and one way to do that is blending cleaner-burning advanced biofuels with the planes’ traditional jet fuel.

While cost and production capacity have been inhibiting in biofuels’ taking off widely, the Obama Administration announced on Tuesday an initiative that will provide up to $510 million of public and private capital to produce advanced biofuels.

We were happy to see that the airlines actually welcomed the biofuels initiative.  In fact, the president of the ATA — the very trade association involved in the law suit in Europe against the Aviation Directive — even highlighted the climate benefits of the initiative, saying:

This initiative is crucial to help turn the promise of advanced aviation biofuels into reality, enhancing America’s energy security and reducing greenhouse gas emissions while creating jobs.

We think the Administration's advanced biofuels initiative has the potential both to promote low-carbon options for ships and planes and to help rural economies.  However, it would have an even greater impact if the Administration also supported the Aviation Directive.  (Up to now, the Obama Administration has objected to the application of the law on U.S. airlines.)

In a statement on Tuesday, EDF’s International Climate Program Director Jennifer Haverkamp said:

Emissions from aviation and shipping are both accelerating and poorly regulated, so it’s welcome to see an investment in efforts to reduce them.

How unfortunate, then, that the Administration is supporting an initiative to stimulate development of advanced biofuels, while at the same time opposing a law in Europe that would reward U.S. airlines for using them.  Clearly the Administration could multiply the positive effects of this initiative on rural jobs and green growth by also supporting the EU’s Aviation Directive.

So today, on National Aviation Day 2011, EDF encourages all airline operators to take steps to reduce their emissions and fly cleaner, and urges airlines and passengers flying to Europe to embrace the opportunity that the Aviation Directive provides to move to a lower-carbon aviation sector.

Hopefully on National Aviation Day 2012, we’ll be celebrating participation of U.S. airlines in the pioneering anti-pollution EU law.

–

Note: Today’s also quite fitting to announce the international climate program’s newest webpage, edf.org/aviation.  There, you’ll find a log of all our aviation background materials, fact sheets, press releases, letters to policy makers, blogs, and more, dating all the way back to our 1999 report “Tracking The Skies: An Airline-based system for limiting greenhouse gas emissions from international civil aviation.”

Posted in Aviation |: | 2 Responses