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[Thread] The UN's biggest attempt to make flying green took off this year – and experts say it's "worse than nothing." A DW analysis finds the deal will allow airlines to pollute for free for at least six more years: https://p.dw.com/p/3oGek
CORSIA, a huge emissions deal brokered by the UN agency @ICAO, is supposed to help stop the sector's CO2 emissions. More than half the world will participate, including biggest emitters like the US, EU and China. But…
The scheme doesn't put a cap on CO2. Airlines will buy carbon credits to offset emissions above a 2019 baseline. That's too high, climate experts say. Magdalena Heuwieser, co-founder of @StayGroundedNet, called CORSIA "too broken to fix"
Only around a third of all aviation emissions are covered under #CORSIA. With flights down because of the pandemic, @rutherdan from @TheICCT calculated it might take six to eight years to get back to 2019 emission levels.
Until then, airlines practically get to pollute for free. As more countries join the scheme in 2027, the baseline will increase slightly. But only a fraction of emissions will actually have to be offset.
Originally, the baseline was set as the average of 2019/2020 emissions, which would have now meant a start to offsets as early as 2022. But when lockdowns grounded planes last year, industry group @IATA argued that would cost too much.
The ICAO agreed and excluded 2020 from the baseline, saying that not accounting for the hit to demand caused by the pandemic would "create an inappropriate economic burden to airplane operators."
But a DW analysis shows that even with the original, higher baseline, airlines would have paid less than 1% of 2019 operating costs for offsets.
For European @Lufthansa for example, that would work out to around 370 million Euros. The airline has already secured 25 times that in Covid relief according to @transenv's bailout tracker. And yearly fuel prices can vary by much more, too. https://www.transportenvironment.org/what-we-do/flying-and-climate-change/bailout-tracker
Offsets are cheap: CORSIA credits cost just 85 cents right now. Experts from @TheICCT and @EcoMarketplace think it's unlikely to ever rise above $12. For comparison: German NGO @Atmosfair charges private flyers 23 Euros for one ton of CO2.
These low prices might even delay investments in green technology, says @rutherdan: Airlines who want to improve could be undercut by competitors who can just buy cheap CORSIA offsets instead.
Read more: https://p.dw.com/p/3oGek
Read more: https://p.dw.com/p/3oGek
