NBAA this week filed its formal response to a recent announcement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that it wants to regulate carbon emissions from airplanes. NBAA said it is not opposed to new regulations, but wants them to be standardized across the globe. The International Civil Aviation Organization already is working to develop a worldwide standard for aircraft emissions, with a study and a meeting in the works for next year. “Aviation is a global industry that regularly moves across regulatory boundaries,” NBAA said. “Arbitrarily setting a higher standard [in the U.S.] will have significant negative consequences that could result in a patchwork of uncoordinated standards, stifle innovation, increase costs, and harm U.S. exports.”
“As with nearly every aviation standard, coordinated implementation across all of ICAO’s member states helps to ensure compliance while reducing confusion and unintended market impacts,” NBAA said in its comments. Also, the EPA’s aircraft-emissions policy should focus on improvements in the efficiency of operations, modernization of the air traffic control infrastructure, investment in new technology (including alternative fuels), and market-based measures, NBAA said. The EPA says aircraft are the single largest greenhouse-gas-emitting transportation source not yet subject to greenhouse-gas-emission standards. Aircraft operating from the U.S. emit 29 percent of GHG emissions from all aircraft globally, 3 percent of the total GHG emissions in the U.S., and 0.5 percent of total global GHG emissions, according to the EPA.
