Green Aviation

Emissions Trading

The Aviation industry must respond rapidly to the concerns of the flying public and the scientific community. We have a chance to shape our own solutions and deal with neutralizing the rapid growth in emissions.

Emissions Trading Schemes are a great way to give aviation an incentive to limit their emissions. More commonly referred to as ETS, these schemes have been in place for some polluting industries already since the 1990’s but are little understood by those not using them, especially airline management. Put simply, paying to pollute above an allocated reduction target is what anyone in an ETS has to do. If they exceed their target they can even sell their additional CO2 back in to the ETS. Around the world UN validated and audited development projects reduce or completely avoid the output of CO2 and that reduction is sold to the ETS marketplace. The balance between supply, demand, and targets plus other factors determine the price of a tonne of CO2.

Systematic reductions through various projects plus enforced reductions via ETS could allow the airlines to offset their growth with sufficient CO2 reductions. However if these actions are not adopted adequately, then we need to think “outside of the box” even more. There are many radical ideas out there, but some are commercially viable!

You can learn more about the European ETS in this very informative presentation by the European Commission here EU_ETS.pdf

NEW - Aviation ETS Managed Service!

We have teamed our expert aviation professionals with highly experienced EU Emissions Trading partners to offer the airline community a unique service to take the headache out of worrying about ETS compliance and to significantly reduce airlines costs. Learn more here!

Which Carbon Offset?

Should you use or launch a carbon offset programme? If so, which one? It is a tough task choosing which program to invest your hard-earned money in. We have been working with experts and Carbon Catalog to develop our own Carbon Offset program which will be the most accurate and secure in the industry, launching shortly. In the meantime, The Carbon Catalog has a great ranking system for voluntary carbon offsets. It may help you choose who to offset with today, until the Green Aviation system comes online.

Green Aviation’s advice is to only choose a scheme that uses CERs (Certified Emission Reductions) under the United Nations’ scheme CDM (Carbon Development Mechanism). That is the only way of guarateeing that you are placing your money in a regulated scheme with audits. That is not to say the others are not worthwhile, or are fraudulent, but it is widely recognised in professional circles that you reduce the risk by investing in CERs. For example, Pure only does this, and they are also a charity that place at least 100% of your contribution in the scheme (due to tax breaks) !