Defending EU Sovereignty and Values in Response to U.S. Trade Pressure

Carbon Market Watch and Opportunity Green call on the European Commission to maintain its climate leadership by resisting U.S. pressure to exempt international aviation from the EU ETS. The authors argue that the ICAO's CORSIA scheme is an inferior alternative to the ETS because it lacks an emissions cap and relies on inadequate offsetting. They highlight that in 2023, flights leaving EEA airports emitted 133 MtCO2, with less than half reported under the ETS, and warn that yielding to U.S. threats, such as the EU ETS Prohibition Act, would undermine EU sovereignty and climate goals.

• The authors argue that the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) is an inferior mechanism for reducing emissions compared to the ETS because it does not cap emissions and only requires offsets for emissions exceeding 85% of 2019 levels from 2027.
• In 2023, flights departing from airports in the European Economic Area (EEA) emitted 133 MtCO2, a figure nearly equal to the total domestic emissions of the Netherlands in 2023 (146 MtCO2), yet less than half of these aviation emissions were reported under the ETS.
• The EU ETS for aviation was originally imposed in 2012 but was suspended for flights between the EEA and third countries following diplomatic pressure, primarily from the United States.
• The document notes that U.S. Senator John Thune introduced the EU ETS Prohibition Act, which empowers the U.S. Secretary of Transportation to forbid U.S. airlines from participating in the EU ETS.

APA

Carbon Market Watch (n.d.). Defending EU Sovereignty and Values in Response to U.S. Trade Pressure. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ETS-aviation-letter-–-final-draft-1.pdf

Chicago

Carbon Market Watch. Defending EU Sovereignty and Values in Response to U.S. Trade Pressure. n.d. https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ETS-aviation-letter-–-final-draft-1.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |author=Carbon Market Watch |title=Defending EU Sovereignty and Values in Response to U.S. Trade Pressure |url=https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ETS-aviation-letter-–-final-draft-1.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{carbonmarketwatchnddefending, author = {{Carbon Market Watch}}, title = {{Defending EU Sovereignty and Values in Response to U.S. Trade Pressure}}, publisher = {Carbon Market Watch}, url = {https://carbonmarketwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/ETS-aviation-letter-–-final-draft-1.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }