Boosting Aviation Decarbonisation Through the Revision of the EU ETS - CleanTechnica

The article discusses the upcoming revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) in July 2026 as a critical opportunity to accelerate decarbonisation in European aviation. Currently, the EU ETS only covers flights within Europe, accounting for a limited portion of aviation emissions. Expanding the scope to include all flights departing from the EU would add approximately 80 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions to the scheme, compared to the current 64 million tonnes, and cover 67% more private jet emissions. This extension would significantly increase ETS revenues—from €3 billion in 2024 to an additional €7 billion—providing crucial funding to support the green transition in aviation. Germany, Poland, and Italy stand to benefit the most from this scope expansion. The article also highlights the need to reform the Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) allowances mechanism. Currently, SAF allowances aim to incentivize airlines to use SAFs by partially bridging the cost gap with conventional kerosene but fall short in supporting