€10.9bn in free EU carbon permits for airlines fuels row over emissions trading reform
Six European airlines received €10.9bn in free emissions allowances under the EU's emissions trading scheme, according to new research, as aviation is set to be one of the main battlegrounds in a proposed reform to the system.
New research published on Wednesday (9 September) by climate change NGO Opportunity Green and independent research and consultancy CE Delft found that between 2013 and 2025, the EU handed €10.9bn in free emissions allowances to European airlines.
The report’s findings will feed into one of the most divisive debates on the EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS), which is now up for review.
Six of Europe’s biggest airlines, Lufthansa Group, Ryanair, easyJet, IAG, Air France-KLM and Wizz Air, received €6bn alone, while making €21bn in profit.
Meanwhile, it is estimated they have racked up €320bn in climate costs, while spending only €1bn on decarbonisation.
The report also said that only 0.1 percent of the capital investments made by the six airlines supported genuinely sustainable investments in 2025.
In mid-July, the European Commission announced a major overhaul of the EU’s emissions trading system, which offers economic incentives to businesses to reduce their carbon emissions and sets a price on carbon.
The aviation industry is responsible for an estimated four percent of historical global warming.
However, "aviation is the only major sector where emissions are going up rather than down," EU climate commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told reporters in July.
That suggests that ETS rules for the aviation industry will be among the most bitterly fought over in the coming months.
Benjamin Fox is our trade and geopolitics editor. His reporting has also been published in the Guardian, the East African, Euractiv, Private Eye and Africa Confidential, among others. He is based in Nairobi, Kenya, although he often reports from London.
