The Commission adopted a Regulation approving the use of a tool to estimate fuel consumption by small aircraft operators as part of their compliance with the EU Emissions Trading System. The tool was developed by the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol). The tool enables aircraft operators with few flights or emissions to use simplified monitoring procedures…
The Commission adopted a Regulation approving the use of a tool to estimate fuel consumption by small aircraft operators as part of their compliance with the EU Emissions Trading System. The tool was developed by the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol). The tool enables aircraft operators with few flights or emissions to use simplified monitoring procedures.
The European Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard, said: "The development and approval of this tool to estimate the fuel consumption of small emitters is a good example of how European cooperation and a common, cost-effective approach can benefit both companies and the climate. I welcome the cooperation between Eurocontrol and the Commission that has made this possible".
The tool is available for so-called "small emitters", which are aircraft operators responsible for a limited number of flights per annum or operators with a small amount of annual emissions of carbon dioxide. The tool can also be used by other aircraft operators to determine estimates of fuel consumption for specific flights where actual fuel consumption data is missing.
The tool developed by Eurocontrol uses statistically robust fuel consumption coefficients for the majority of common aircraft types as well as widely recognised emission factors for all other aircraft. This tool meets the requirements of the monitoring and reporting guidelines for the EU ETS established by Decision 2007/589/EC, with a calculation approach based on individual flights, actual route length and statistically sound fuel consumption relationships.
Use of the tool by small emitters will reduce the administrative requirements related to compliance with the EU ETS as it enables eligible operators to model their fuel consumption of their flights rather than require them to measure consumption of each flight.
Background
The EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS) was established in 2003 by Directive 2003/87/EC and started operation on 1 January 2005. Initially the EU ETS included only land based industrial installations. From 1 January 2012 aviation activities of aircraft operators that operate flights arriving at and departing from Community aerodromes will also be included in the scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community. The legislation covers 30 States including the 27 EU Member States and Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
Aircraft operators have already started fulfilling their obligations by submitting their monitoring plans to competent authorities in 2009 and monitoring their emissions and tonne-kilometre data in 2010.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
