Airlines should make a "fair contribution" to global efforts to cut greenhouse gases, the European Commission said today.
Unveiling proposals to add civil aviation to the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said the plan "is a cost-effective solution that is good for the environment and treats all airlines equally".
The Commission said it expected only a "limited" knock-on effect on passenger ticket prices as a result of including aviation in the scheme, any rise being "significantly lower than rises due to oil price changes in recent years."
Environment ministers are being asked to endorse plans to apply the scheme to all flights within the EU from 2011 and all flights to and from EU airports from 2012.
The move would involve EU and non-EU airlines, with operators being awarded tradeable emissions quotas.
As with industry, airlines would be able to sell surplus allowances if they reduced their emissions and would need to buy additional allowances if they exceeded their allocation.
Mr Dimas said EU carbon emissions from international air transport were increasing faster than from any other sector. The rate of growth threatened to undermine the EU's progress in cutting overall greenhouse gas emissions, he added.
But some assessments say aviation's contribution is still only 2 per cent of total CO2. The Commission says that by proposing the new move, it is implementing an approach already endorsed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation.
The EU emissions trading scheme - its key tool to battle global warming and meet Kyoto Protocol emissions reduction targets - puts a limit on the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) big polluters such as power plants and oil refineries can emit.
But so far it had excluded aviation, a major and growing source of pollution as air travel booms. Now airlines, like companies already involved in the scheme, will be able to buy rights to pollute if they overshoot their targets or sell them if they come in below the cap.
The Association of European Airlines (AEA), representing big carriers such as British Airways, Air France KLM and Lufthansa, said its members were likely to end up buying permits because the cap was so strict.