IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/asiaeu/v13y2015i2p113-130.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Towards a global scheme for carbon emissions reduction in aviation: China’s role in blocking the extension of the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme

Author

Listed:
  • Armin Ibitz

Abstract

In 2008, the European Union (EU) decided to include aviation in its Emissions Trading System (ETS) in order to realize emissions reductions in the aviation sector. However, the unilateral measure has triggered strong opposition from various actors, and now, the EU finds itself in the middle of a substantial power struggle about the creation of a global scheme for international aviation emissions reduction. China plays an important role as it has not only banned its airlines from complying with the EU ETS, but also implemented economic retaliatory measures, such as freezing orders of new European Airbus aircraft. Consequently, Beijing could successfully form coalitions with other countries to dilute international negotiations at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) assembly in 2013. The study reveals the hardships that the establishment of a global carbon emissions reduction scheme for aviation faces. It discusses the leading role of the EU on the issue, and provides a general assessment of possible responses to the aviation directive. It then analyzes China’s position on the inclusion of aviation under a global carbon reduction scheme. Finally, the study provides a prospect on how to overcome the diplomatic struggle in order to achieve concrete carbon emission reductions in aviation. As the study concludes, the EU and the rest of the world would be better off by refraining from unilateral mitigation measures and emphasizing more involvement, engagement, and capacity building in negotiating a possible carbon reduction scheme at the international level. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Suggested Citation

  • Armin Ibitz, 2015. "Towards a global scheme for carbon emissions reduction in aviation: China’s role in blocking the extension of the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme," Asia Europe Journal, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 113-130, June.
  • Handle: RePEc:kap:asiaeu:v:13:y:2015:i:2:p:113-130
    DOI: 10.1007/s10308-014-0398-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s10308-014-0398-2
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10308-014-0398-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anger, Annela & Köhler, Jonathan, 2010. "Including aviation emissions in the EU ETS: Much ado about nothing? A review," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 38-46, January.
    2. Albers, Sascha & Bühne, Jan-André & Peters, Heiko, 2009. "Will the EU-ETS instigate airline network reconfigurations?," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 1-6.
    3. Young, Oran R., 1991. "Political leadership and regime formation: on the development of institutions in international society," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 45(3), pages 281-308, July.
    4. Meunier, Sophie, 2000. "What Single Voice? European Institutions and EU–U.S. Trade Negotiations," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 54(1), pages 103-135, January.
    5. Joshua Meltzer, 2012. "Climate Change and Trade--The EU Aviation Directive and the WTO," Journal of International Economic Law, Oxford University Press, vol. 15(1), pages 111-156, March.
    6. A M Sbragia & C Damro, 1999. "The Changing Role of the European Union in International Environmental Politics: Institution Building and the Politics of Climate Change," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 17(1), pages 53-68, February.
    7. Ian Manners, 2002. "Normative Power Europe: A Contradiction in Terms?," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 235-258, June.
    8. Vespermann, Jan & Wald, Andreas, 2011. "Much Ado about Nothing? – An analysis of economic impacts and ecologic effects of the EU-emission trading scheme in the aviation industry," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 45(10), pages 1066-1076.
    9. Scheelhaase, Janina D. & Grimme, Wolfgang G., 2007. "Emissions trading for international aviation—an estimation of the economic impact on selected European airlines," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 13(5), pages 253-263.
    10. John Vogler & Hannes Stephan, 2007. "The European Union in global environmental governance: Leadership in the making?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 7(4), pages 389-413, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pagoni, Ioanna & Psaraki-Kalouptsidi, Voula, 2016. "The impact of carbon emission fees on passenger demand and air fares: A game theoretic approach," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 41-51.
    2. Cui, Qiang & Li, Ye, 2017. "Airline efficiency measures under CNG2020 strategy: An application of a Dynamic By-production model," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 130-143.
    3. Estelle Malavolti & Marion Podesta, 2011. "Inclusion of the aviation sector into the emission trading scheme : an economic analysis," Post-Print hal-01022239, HAL.
    4. Cui, Qiang & Wei, Yi-Ming & Li, Ye, 2016. "Exploring the impacts of the EU ETS emission limits on airline performance via the Dynamic Environmental DEA approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 984-994.
    5. Kang, Yicheng & Liao, Sha & Jiang, Changmin & D’Alfonso, Tiziana, 2022. "Synthetic control methods for policy analysis: Evaluating the effect of the European Emission Trading System on aviation supply," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 236-252.
    6. Li, Ye & Wang, Yan-zhang & Cui, Qiang, 2016. "Has airline efficiency affected by the inclusion of aviation into European Union Emission Trading Scheme? Evidences from 22 airlines during 2008–2012," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 8-22.
    7. Jiuh-Biing Sheu & Fang Li, 2014. "Market Competition and Greening Transportation of Airlines Under the Emission Trading Scheme: A Case of Duopoly Market," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(4), pages 684-694, November.
    8. Agni Kalfagianni & Oran R. Young, 2022. "The politics of multilateral environmental agreements lessons from 20 years of INEA," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 245-262, June.
    9. D’Alfonso, Tiziana & Jiang, Changmin & Bracaglia, Valentina, 2016. "Air transport and high-speed rail competition: Environmental implications and mitigation strategies," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 261-276.
    10. Sheu, Jiuh-Biing, 2014. "Airline ambidextrous competition under an emissions trading scheme – A reference-dependent behavioral perspective," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 115-145.
    11. repec:bla:jcmkts:v:47:y:2009:i::p:555-578 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Nava, Consuelo R. & Meleo, Linda & Cassetta, Ernesto & Morelli, Giovanna, 2018. "The impact of the EU-ETS on the aviation sector: Competitive effects of abatement efforts by airlines," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 20-34.
    13. Sheng, Dian & Li, Zhi-Chun & Fu, Xiaowen & Gillen, David, 2017. "Modeling the effects of unilateral and uniform emission regulations under shipping company and port competition," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 99-114.
    14. Miyoshi, Chikage, 2014. "Assessing the equity impact of the European Union Emission Trading Scheme on an African airline," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 56-64.
    15. Zanin, Massimiliano & Delibasi, Tuba Toru & Triana, Julio César & Mirchandani, Vaishali & à lvarez Pereira, Emilio & Enrich, Alberto & Perez, David & Paşaoğlu, Cengiz & Fidanoglu, Melih & Koyuncu, , 2016. "Towards a secure trading of aviation CO2 allowance," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 56(PA), pages 3-11.
    16. Barbot, Cristina & Betancor, Ofelia & Socorro, M. Pilar & Viecens, M. Fernanda, 2014. "Trade-offs between environmental regulation and market competition: Airlines, emission trading systems and entry deterrence," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 65-72.
    17. Koopmans, Carl & Lieshout, Rogier, 2016. "Airline cost changes: To what extent are they passed through to the passenger?," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 1-11.
    18. Brueckner, Jan K. & Zhang, Anming, 2010. "Airline emission charges: Effects on airfares, service quality, and aircraft design," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(8-9), pages 960-971, September.
    19. Cui, Qiang & Lin, Jing-ling & Jin, Zi-yin, 2020. "Evaluating airline efficiency under “Carbon Neutral Growth from 2020” strategy through a Network Interval Slack-Based Measure," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    20. Sungwook Yoon & Sukjae Jeong, 2016. "RETRACTED: Carbon Emission Mitigation Potentials of Different Policy Scenarios and Their Effects on International Aviation in the Korean Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-21, November.
    21. Cui, Qiang & Li, Ye & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2017. "Exploring the impacts of EU ETS on the pollution abatement costs of European airlines: An application of Network Environmental Production Function," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 131-142.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:asiaeu:v:13:y:2015:i:2:p:113-130. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.