Europeans want real action on the climate crisis and they want Europe to lead the way. As we look forward to Europe’s most ambitious climate action plan yet, the European Business aviation sector is determined to support the European Green Deal, its goals and underlying values.

Business Aviation Commitment on Climate Change

In 2009 the global Business aviation community, united through the leadership of the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), published the Business Aviation Commitment on Climate Change (BACCC), which detailed three aspirational goals and the associated mechanisms it would use to achieve these goals:

• Carbon-neutral growth by 2020;
• An improvement in fuel efficiency of an average of 2% per year from today until 2020;
• A reduction in total CO2 emissions of 50% by 2050 relative to 2005

The commitment remains relevant today and creates a solid foundation for all environmental and sustainability improvements that can be made throughout the Business aviation sector. Our commitment is continually reviewed to ensure it remains relevant and that our industry is on track with its original goals.

The European Union Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS) was originally introduced in 2005 to drive emissions reduction improvements in the energy and industrial sectors. From 2012, aviation will be included in the EU-ETS, meaning all aircraft operators operating in the EU will be subject to the scheme.

The EU-ETS is what’s known as a “cap and trade” system, where operators have to purchase allowances to cover their emissions outputs.

The scheme has become the cornerstone of the EU’s policy to combat climate change – which now falls under the EU’s Green Deal policy framework – and covers approximately 45% of all Greenhouse Gas Emissions across the EU.

EBAA stands for an alignment between the EU-ETS and CORSIA, to ensure the European Business aviation sector is not forced to participate in both schemes simultaneously.