{"id":8777,"date":"2026-03-24T22:02:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:02:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/?p=8777"},"modified":"2026-03-24T22:22:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T22:22:09","slug":"european-airlines-call-on-eu-to-lower-carbon-pricing-and-saf-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/?p=8777","title":{"rendered":"European airlines call on EU to lower carbon pricing and SAF costs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

European airline CEOs meeting in Brussels have called on the EU to urgently address rising costs and a growing regulatory burden on the sector, identifying in particular the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and the impact of ReFuelEU\u2019s sustainable aviation fuel mandate. Trade body Airlines for Europe (A4E) says regulatory costs for its members have tripled since 2014 to \u20ac15.5 billion ($18bn) annually and is expected to rise to \u20ac27.6 billion per year in 2030. It calls on the EU to bring ETS costs in line with the levels of the CORSIA international carbon offsetting scheme and work towards replacing the ETS with a strengthened CORSIA. A4E also demands immediate EU and member state action to rapidly bring down the cost of SAF and to postpone the \u201cuntenable\u201d eSAF mandate.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

European airlines argue they are at a competitive disadvantage with those based outside the continent, with passengers and airlines penalised for flying within Europe. A4E maintains that a family of four that flies from Belgium to Greece on holiday would pay \u20ac80 more than if they flew to Turkey instead, as a result of ETS costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A4E members have in the past held different views on the scope of the ETS, with legacy airlines arguing the scheme should only apply to intra-European flights, while low-cost carriers like easyJet and Ryanair called for flights departing from European airports to be subject to the ETS in order to maintain, as they saw it, fairer competition. All A4E members have now coalesced around a common position that the ETS must not be extended to all departing flights from the EU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cInstead,\u201d says A4E<\/a>, \u201cthe EU must work towards strengthening CORSIA to make it the only carbon pricing system globally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of a general review of the ETS, the European Commission is due to report in the summer on a consideration of the effectiveness of CORSIA and whether to recommend a change from the current intra-EEA scope of the ETS.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While meaningful ETS reform is critical if Europe is serious about protecting European competitiveness, said Ourania Georgoutsakou, A4E\u2019s Managing Director, \u201cExtending the ETS to routes beyond the EU is simply not the solution. The fairest way to level the global playing field is to bring down ETS costs in line with the international CORSIA mechanism.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ETS allowance prices have retreated from around \u20ac90 per tonne in January to around \u20ac70 ($80) now, but still above previous forecasts for 2026. Eligible credits (EEUs) for Phase 1 of the CORSIA scheme are projected by carbon market specialist Sylvera<\/a> to be between $25-36 per tonne by 2027. A recent procurement process initiated by IATA<\/a> saw 11 airlines purchase Phase 1 EEUs from the Guyana government at $21.70 per tonne under a fixed-price auction\/offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For its members, A4E estimates ETS costs of around \u20ac5 billion by 2030, double that of 2024, as free allowances for aviation are fully phased out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ETS is being blamed for contributing to Europe\u2019s high electricity prices and a number of EU states have called for a price cap or even suspension of the scheme. \u201cIf there is a political choice to do so, this must also include aviation,\u201d said A4E.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the ReFuelEU SAF mandate, A4E says that whilst its members remain committed to decarbonising through the switch to sustainable aviation fuels, the overall SAF target of 6% use by 2030 can be maintained, \u201cprovided SAF prices drop significantly\u201d. However, it is pessimistic the 1.2% by 2030 eSAF sub-mandate, which requires 600,000 tonnes of synthetic fuel, can be met given the eSAF production sites that have so far reached final investment decision are currently expected to produce just 0.71% of the volumes mandated. It therefore calls on the sub-mandate to be postponed until eSAF is sufficiently available and affordable, together with a redesign of the regulatory framework \u201cto support diverse, affordable production pathways\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A more optimistic Eddy Li\u00e9geois, Head of the Aviation Policy Unit at the European Commission\u2019s DG MOVE, told delegates at the Sustainable Skies World Summit in the UK on March 17 that it was still possible to meet the sub-mandate. He pointed to the proposed double-sided auction mechanism to help eSAF projects get off the ground and that a coalition of eight EU states had committed to the production of synthetic fuels, with two allocating $2 billion to the mechanism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said there were legal obligations on fuel suppliers to meet the mandates. \u201cIf they do not meet them then there will be sanctions in the form of penalties,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Politico reported<\/a> on March 5 that at a closed Brussels meeting with industry representatives, Li\u00e9geois said fuel suppliers would not be penalised for missing eSAF targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If fines were to be imposed due to a failing market, says A4E, the suppliers would push them on to airlines that in turn would be forced to pass on the costs to passengers, which it estimates at \u20ac7-9 billion, \u201cwith no environmental benefits\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A4E is also calling for a basket of measures, including a carbon leakage mechanism \u2013 such as its proposed SAF-BAM<\/a>, to address the costs on extra-EU routes not covered by the SAF mandate so as to ensure a competitive level playing field with non-EU carriers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brussels-based lobby group Transport & Environment (T&E) has criticised the stance taken by A4E member airlines on the mandates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAgainst a terrifying geopolitical backdrop, airlines are adding fuel to the fire. By creating panic over targets, they are generating the very uncertainty that is preventing the scale-up of SAF,\u201d said Camille Mutruelle<\/a>, T&E Aviation Policy Officer. \u201cThis is a typical example of short-term thinking, given that SAF will provide a viable and long-term alternative to our dependency on fossil fuels. No credible industrial policy can survive if targets are treated as optional. And no investor will commit to future clean technologies under such conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf airlines are serious about tackling climate change, they should stop sabotaging one of the only viable futures for their industry and focus on making the transition, rather than rewriting the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Christopher Surgenor<\/strong>
Editor<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

European airline CEOs meeting in Brussels have called on the EU to urgently address rising…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1039,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,255,395,76,57,39],"tags":[64,51],"class_list":["post-8777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corsia","category-e-fuels","category-eu-ets","category-europe","category-latest-news","category-sustainable-aviation-fuels","tag-a4e","tag-te"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Brussels-Airlines-A320-HiRes_edited.jpg",1099,732,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Brussels-Airlines-A320-HiRes_edited-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Brussels-Airlines-A320-HiRes_edited-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Brussels-Airlines-A320-HiRes_edited-768x512.jpg",640,427,true],"large":["https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Brussels-Airlines-A320-HiRes_edited-1024x682.jpg",640,426,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Brussels-Airlines-A320-HiRes_edited.jpg",1099,732,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Brussels-Airlines-A320-HiRes_edited.jpg",1099,732,false],"newsever-slider-full":["https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Brussels-Airlines-A320-HiRes_edited.jpg",1099,732,false],"newsever-featured":["https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Brussels-Airlines-A320-HiRes_edited-1024x682.jpg",1024,682,true],"newsever-medium":["https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Brussels-Airlines-A320-HiRes_edited-720x475.jpg",720,475,true],"mailchimp":["https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Brussels-Airlines-A320-HiRes_edited.jpg",560,373,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"Christopher Surgenor","author_link":"https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/?author=1"},"category_info":"CORSIA<\/a> E-fuels<\/a> EU ETS<\/a> Europe<\/a> Latest News<\/a> Sustainable Aviation Fuels<\/a>","tag_info":"Sustainable Aviation Fuels","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8777"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8777\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8781,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8777\/revisions\/8781"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenairnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}