The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) will today issue a new report entitled Green Skies Ahead: Creating a Low-carbon Aviation Industry that voice concerns at government plans to impose a new per-plane tax on flights in and out of the UK. It argues that the most effective means of curbing aviation carbon emissions is through a global cap-and-trade scheme.

The report warns that without a global cap-and-trade scheme for aviation there is a risk that any national levies will simply encourage flights to be diverted to other countries. A new per-plane tax on flights would be ineffective, damage competitiveness, and would distract from the important goal of establishing a global cap-and-trade scheme.

The move from the CBI follows reports that the US embassy has similarly lobbied the government to ditch plans for a per-plane tax, which the coalition has argued will curb carbon emissions by encouraging airlines to operate fuller planes.

John Cridland, CBI deputy director general said that "the best way for the world's aviation industry to meet its climate obligations is through a global cap-and-trade scheme," he said. "Such a scheme would include all airlines, removing scope for leakage of carbon emissions from one country to another, and would run with, not against, the grain of this international industry."

A global cap-and-trade scheme would ensure all airlines operate under the same rules

The CBI continues to support EU plans to include aviation in its regional carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) from 2012, although it argues that it will remain an imperfect mechanism for regulating aviation carbon emissions until a global cap-and-trade scheme is established.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the governing body for civil aviation is due to host its tri-annual general assembly in September, where the CBI is calling on the ICAO to move forward with mooted plans for an international cap-and-trade scheme that would ensure all airlines operate under the same rules. Such proposals are likely to be fiercely contested by the US and developing economies which argue that pricing aviation carbon emissions will damage their economy.

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