Climate notes: Transport and Emission Trading in Europe

Since 1 January 2012 air traffic in Europe has been obliged to participate in European emissions trading. This applies to all air companies that take off or land on the continent. Why, however, is air traffic only obliged to trade with emissions certificates and is not involved in a trading system relating to the consumption of fuels in general? This article offers an overview of the level of CO2 emissions in the European transport sector and shows that extending European emissions trading to the entire economy and thus to the transport sector, accompanied by the discontinuation of CO2 taxes, would correspond to the equalisation of CO2 prices across all sectors demanded by economists.