Representatives of civil society, parts of the rail sector and sustainable aviation fuels industry, are calling attention to developments on the Energy Taxation Directive (ETD), where worrying negotiations could lead to a continuation of a tax exemption for fossil jet fuel and marine fuels until 2049, a year before the continent is supposed to reach climate neutrality.
Why is the introduction of a fuel tax for planes and ships important?
Raising revenues for the EU’s sustainable transition: failing to tax jet fuel on all departing flights from Europe represented a tax gap of €10.7 billion for EU-27 governments in 2022. Each year European governments lose out on billions of revenue which could be reinvested into the transition to sustainable alternatives like rail and the decarbonisation of the aviation sector itself.
Correcting a social injustice: it is becoming socially untenable for citizens to pay high taxes on essentials like heating their homes, traveling by train or fueling their cars, while flights taken by businessmen to New York or tourists to Dubaï remain untaxed.. Maintaining tax exemptions for certain sectors, while others bear the burden of contributing to climate efforts, contradicts the EU’s Green Deal objective of ensuring a socially fair transition and undermines the fight against climate change.
Encouraging energy efficiency: increasing the cost of using jet fuel would not only encourage the aviation sector to use efficient flight paths, but also more efficient aircraft technologies to reduce fuel consumption. Such a loophole in the EU energy taxation framework will be a missed opportunity to enhance the EU’s energy autonomy.
