Welcome to the European Parliamentary Research Service podcasts.

In this podcast, we'll talk about the Commission's proposal to review the EU's emissions trading system as regards aviation,

to ensure the sector contributes to achieving the EU's climate goals. Stay with us.

Thank you. achieving the EU's climate goals. Stay with us. Flying pollutes the air. We all know that. That's why the EU was the first economy to address the issue of aviation emissions. The aviation sector accounts for just under 4% of the EU's CO2 emissions, and it's part of

the European emissions trading system, the ETS, since 2012.

The EU ETS prices carbon and obligates airlines to cover every ton of CO2 they emit by ETS allowances,

but only for flights inside the European economic area, including the UK and Switzerland.

Opposition by countries such as the United States, Canada and China forced the EU to exclude

international flights from its emissions trading system,

while a global market-based solution to address international aviation emissions was being negotiated.

The result of those negotiations is Kossier, the carbon offsetting and reduction scheme

for international aviation, which aims to offset all future aviation emissions

growth. Unlike ETS, Corsia is not a cap and trade system aiming at decreasing this cap over

time, but rather a system to stabilize aviation emissions by offsetting emissions above a

predefined baseline, agreed by the International Civil Aviation Organization, or ICAO.

This baseline was first calculated using an average of 2019 and 2020 emissions from the sector.

But as COVID-19 brought air travel to a halt, naturally decreasing emissions,

the ICAO decided that the value of

2019 emissions shall be used as Corsier baseline to avoid further economic burden on the aviation industry.

Which means that in practice, no offsetting will be expected during Corsier's pilot phase,

which runs from 2021 to 2023.

Now, in July 2021, as part of the Fit for 55 package, the Commission proposed to amend the

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