Greening freight package: Count Emission for Aviation

11 July 2023: The European Commission has submitted to the EU council and the Parliament on the 11^th of July its proposal to make freight transport more efficient and more sustainable. As part of this package and directly concerning air transport of passengers and cargo, the instrument Count Emission has been introduced.

The objective is to become a common framework for quantifying the greenhouse gas emissions of transport services across different modes. The Commission is proposing a single methodology for calculating these emissions.

The European Environmental Agency (EEA) will maintain the EU databases of default greenhouse gas emission intensity values and greenhouse gas emission factors. This body should also carry out technical quality checks of third-party external databases and datasets. Where relevant, the Agency’s work may rely on contribution from and be supported by other sectorial EU bodies, such as the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) that will be entrusted in implementing the environmental label for flights in the context of ReFuelEU Aviation initiative.

For the European Commission, REFuelEU Aviation, another initiative under the Fit for 55 package, includes provisions for a dedicated environmental label for flights to help consumers make informed choices and promote greener travel. Also, the European Commission will ensure that the development of the labelling scheme for flights is properly coordinated with the implementation of this initiative to ensure consistency and reliability of any transport greenhouse gas emissions data generated.

According to the European Commission, the EU MRV and EU ETS serves different objectives and do not lead to accounting greenhouse gas emissions of specific services, therefore they may be seen as complementary to this Regulation, especially on the collection of the actual fuel burnt data.