Directive 2023/958 - Amendment of Directive 2003/87/EC as regards aviation’s contribution to the Union’s economy-wide emission reduction target and the appropriate implementation of a global market-based measure - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 130/115

Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) established a system for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Union, in order to promote reductions of greenhouse gas emissions in a cost-effective and economically efficient manner. Aviation activities were included in the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) by Directive 2008/101/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (5). The European Union has competence to extend the EU ETS to all flights which depart from or arrive at an aerodrome located in a Member State.

Protection of the environment is one of the most important challenges facing the Union and the rest of the world. The Paris Agreement (6), adopted on 12 December 2015 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (the ‘Paris Agreement’), entered into force on 4 November 2016. The Parties to the Paris Agreement have agreed to hold the increase in the global average temperature well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1,5 °C above pre-industrial levels. That commitment has been reinforced with the adoption under the UNFCCC of the Glasgow Climate Pact on 13 November 2021, in which the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement, recognises that keeping the increase in the global average temperature to 1,5 °C above pre-industrial levels would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change, and those Parties committed to strengthen their 2030 targets by the end of 2022 in order to accelerate climate action in this critical decade and to close the ambition gap with the 1,5 °C target. In order to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, all sectors of the economy, including international aviation, need to contribute to achieving greenhouse gas emission reductions.

Aviation accounts for 2 to 3 % of global CO2 emissions and aviation’s total climate impact is at least twice its impact from CO2 alone. Aviation is the second biggest source of transport climate impacts after road transport. In 2022, Eurocontrol projected an increase in European aviation activity of 44 % by 2050 compared to 2019. The need for action to reduce CO2 emissions is becoming increasingly urgent, as stated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in its latest reports of 7 August 2021 entitled ‘Climate change 2021: The Physical Science Basis’, of 28 February 2022 entitled ‘Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability’, and of 4 April 2022 entitled ‘Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change’. That report of 4 April 2022 identifies international aviation as a sector where sectoral agreements have adopted climate mitigation goals that fall far short of what would be required to achieve the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement. The Union should therefore address that urgent need for action by stepping up its...