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Recent decades have witnessed an increased public interest in the impact that air traffic may have on the climate and in air pollution caused by air traffic. The continuing growth of the aviation industry and the concomitant increase in emissions, as well as the fact that the Kyoto Protocol did not apply to the aviation industry, have put this issue firmly on the agenda. Public debate is complicated, however, by the fact that the effect of aviation on the climate has not been fully ascertained, nor are current scientific methods available to do so.At this moment the European Commission, among other agencies, is actively seeking measures to help reduce the effect of emissions of greenhouse gases by aviation.
When dealing with the issue of emissions, it is important to make a distinction between the effects of emission on the climate, and pollution. Some substances may in certain situations not pollute but will affect the climate, while in other situations they would add to local air pollution and not have a climate effect.
Including aviation in the existing European Emission Trade System is the most effective, if not the only, solution for lowering emissions overall. Taxes and charges will not have a positive environmental effect, they will just make aviation more expensive. The net result could even be that transportation is moved to other modes, that may well have greater emission levels than aviation for the same transportation effort.
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