Environment Agency of UK to supervise aviation emissions in EU

The Environment Agency of the United Kingdom has been assigned to supervise the European Union’s forthcoming plan to cap emissions from the aviation sector.

The European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) will come into effect for flights arriving and departing from airports of the European Union’s member-nations on January 1, 2012.

Till now, the aviation industry has not been included in the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme – which allows businesses to trade permits to emit carbon – but an agreement signed in Brussels recently stipulated that the ETS will apply to all flights arriving at and departing from airports in the European Union from January 1, 2012.

The British government has already made a commitment to reduce the United Kingdom’s total emissions of carbon dioxide by 80% by 2050.

The European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme – intended to cap carbon emissions from the aviation industry at the 2004-06 levels – requires businesses to buy allowances from other sectors to cover emissions above their allotted cap.

Britain’s Environment Agency, which will be advised by the country’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), will ensure that operators monitor their emissions in the run-up to the start of the scheme, Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband announced.

The Environment Agency, appointed by the government of the United Kingdom to “police” the pending aviation emissions trading scheme in England and Wales, will have powers to fine aviation operators which fail to comply. It is the United Kingdom’s regulator of the wider Emissions Trading Scheme.

The scheme will be enforced in England and Wales by the Environment Agency, with the assistance of the Civil Aviation Authority, the ministers said.

In January 2009, the Environment Agency was bestowed with the responsibility, along with the Civil Aviation Authority, to ensure that expansion at London’s Heathrow Airport met the limits regarding air quality and noise.

The Environment Agency is also responsible for policing the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive.

Britain’s Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said in a statement that the United Kingdom has “the highest environmental standards for aviation in the world” and that the country “has been at the forefront of pushing through this groundbreaking agreement.”

According to the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme, each country will be given specific airlines to police. As the United Kingdom’s regulator for England and Wales, the Environment Agency will have to ensure that airlines monitor their emissions correctly and also impose fines in cases of non-compliance.

Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said that Ministers of Scotland and Northern Ireland would soon appoint the Scottish Environment and Protection Agency and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency as aviation regulators for EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme in Scotland and Northern Ireland, respectively.