"This might just be the world's first truly ethical offseting scheme."
John Grant, Author of The Green Marketing ManifestoWill carbon trading make flying more expensive?
Apparently the Met Office is to blame for a possible increase in the popularity of last minute foreign holidays. After predicting a barbeque summer, many Brits opted to holiday at home, only to be caught in the rain.
Jaded about weather forecasts, the British public is unlikely to risk a wet British summer again and will go back to flying abroad (that's how the tabloids presented it, anyway). But they'll have to contend with the cost of carbon.
From 2012, aircraft operators will be included in the EU Emission Trading Scheme and will have to buy carbon credits for all flights into and out of the EU. This will translate into higher prices for fliers, as the cost of carbon is passed on through increased ticket prices. Whilst bad news for those who like to holiday abroad, it's good news for the environment because aviation emissions are currently unregulated.
We did a few simple sums (click here to see the sums) to see the scale of the additional cost per ticket.
| Ticket: return economy flight from London to... | Low carbon price (10 Euros per tonne) | Today's carbon price (15.30 Euros per tonne) | High carbon price (30 Euros per tonne) |
| Madrid | £0.70 | £1.00 | £2.00 |
| New York | £2.90 | £4.50 | £8.80 |
| Sydney | £9.20 | £14.12 | £27.70 |
As you can see, the costs are pretty meagre and carbon regulation alone is unlikely to bring an end to cheap flights. If flying is so polluting, why is the cost of the carbon emissions so small?
The reason is that airlines will not be able to make the required emission reductions themselves, and will buy carbon credits from other industries in the EU Emission Trading Scheme. These industries have more opportunity to reduce emissions, and the price they charge for the carbon credits will reflect the amount they spend on making the reductions. Aircraft operators have been making a lot of noise against their inclusion in the trading scheme, but these numbers show that the economic impact is likely to be small.
