A new EU monitoring scheme to provide more accurate data on non-CO2 emissions is being put into question. Rather than monitoring non-CO2 on all flights departing Europe, only flights within the European Economic Area (EEA) will be taken into account. Companies and civil society call on the European Commission to ensure a full geographic scope for the scheme, to help accurately account for the full impact of flights in order to support efforts to reduce travel emissions.
Many large companies are committed to play their part in climate mitigation, and so are reporting and reducing overall emissions and those related to business travel, including radiative forcing.
To help them achieve this goal, they need the European Commission to ensure a level playing field, with harmonised standards and methodologies for business travel to be able to contribute to fostering decarbonised travel in Europe. The reduction of emissions from corporate travel cannot be tackled without improving climate accounting standards.
One of the barriers companies face is the difficulty to fully track emissions and climate impacts due to the multiplicity of current methodologies. They are looking to be able to more accurately report their travel emissions, but better guidance is lacking. The Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) framework of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) should help to enable businesses to more easily account for the full climate impact of travel, by including comprehensive reporting standards for non-CO2 effects of aviation. The EU should ensure a full geographic scope for reporting of non-CO2 emissions from all flights entering and departing the EU, to align with the global nature of business travel and corporate sustainability reporting.
This is why the signatories of the letter are calling on the EU Commission to ensure a full geographic scope for the scheme, to help accurately account for the full impact of flights in order to support efforts to reduce travel emissions.