Environment Agency to police aviation in emissions trading

The Environment Agency will police a new scheme to include aviation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme with new powers to issue fines and seize planes, the government announced today.

Until now aviation has not been included in the EU ETS – which allow businesses to trade permits to emit carbon – but a recent agreement in Brussels means the scheme will apply to all flights arriving and departing EU airports from 1 January 2012.

Each country will be given specific airlines to police. As the UK regulator for England and Wales, the Environment Agency will ensure that airlines correctly monitor their emissions in the lead-up to joining the scheme and ensure compliance, issuing fines if necessary.

Scottish and Northern Irish ministers will shortly be appointing the Scottish Environment and Protection Agency and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency respectively as aviation ETS regulators in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Environment Agency already has experience as a regulator, said chairman Chris Smith.

"The Environment Agency operates the greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in England and Wales and with the inclusion of aviation, we will continue to manage the system effectively," he said.

The UK lobbied to get aviation included in the EU ETS, and now it must prove that the scheme can work, said transport secretary Geoff Hoon.

"We must demonstrate to the rest of the world that the scheme is an effective means of capping aviation CO2 emissions so that we can progress towards a similar global arrangement," he said.

"I know that the Environment Agency, with the advice of the Civil Aviation Authority, will ensure that the scheme is properly enforced in the UK."

The industry was not originally included in the EU ETS because of the difficulty of enforcement. Traditionally the EU ETS works by evaluating the emissions of particular sites such as factories or power stations, usually owned by one company, making evaluation straightforward.

But many different airlines operate in and out of airports, posing administrative difficulties with including aviation in the scheme.

But earlier this month the EU got around the problem by detailing plans that would see each member state allocated a number of airlines from which to collect payments for emission allowances.

The Environment Agency is also responsible for policing the the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive, but has come in for some criticism as being ineffective, only recently making its first arrest despite a growing problem of waste getting dumped illegally in Africa.

Separately, the government has announced a new target to reduce UK aviation emissions in 2050 below 2005 levels in absolute terms.

The aircraft industry has already produced a roadmap setting out how this target could be met in its Sustainable Aviation initiative. The government has asked the Climate Change Committee to advise on the best basis to take this forward.