In the UK, Green Air News stressed that a new report carried out by Deloitte for industry advocacy group Airlines for Europe (A4E) noted that current EU sustainability policy, in particular the ReFuelEU sustainable aviation fuel mandate, risks undermining European airlines’ competitiveness as well as sectoral decarbonization goals by shifting passenger activity to non-EU destinations and carriers not subject to the same level of sustainability rules.
The EU’s stricter environmental regulations could create additional market distortions, particularly on EU–Asia routes, because of widening cost gaps. In response, A4E calls on the European Commission to propose a series of policy measures to mitigate this, including a proposal for a SAF Border Adjustment Mechanism (SAF-BAM) that would charge connecting flights the same SAF-related costs faced by EU airlines.
The study estimated that ReFuelEU will widen cost gaps, for example on key EU–Asia routes to a significant 15% by 2030, and suggests that a SAF-BAM could eliminate ‘leakage’ on modeled routes and “restore a level playing field without raising consumer prices overall,” according to the report.
Ourania Georgoutsakou, A4E’s Managing Director, said: “The aim of this study is not to outline the policy preferences of A4E, but to map the different options to mitigate carbon leakage from European aviation and list their advantages and drawbacks.”
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