The European Commission (EC) on Wednesday approved the registration of a European Citizens’ Initiative policy proposal to restrict air travel across Europe, Brussels Signal reports.
The European Citizens’ Initiative allows non-governmental organizations or individuals to propose policies to the EC, the outlet explains.
The French environmentalist lobbying group Air-Quotas aims to reduce carbon emissions across the European Union (EU) by raising the consumer cost of flying via a carbon points system, a statement released by the EC reads.
Under the scheme, carbon points would be allocated to citizens annually, with one point equal to one kilogram of carbon dioxide, the statement explained.
Despite air travel only accounting for five percent of the EU’s climate footprint, the initiative “starts symbolically with a critical means of transport, air transport,” the statement reads. Air-Quotas intends for the carbon points system to eventually “cover all purchases of goods and services,” according to the EC. (RELATED: Dem States’ Carbon-Free Energy Plans Will Barely Make A Dent In China’s Projected Emissions, Report Finds)
Individual citizens would be able to purchase carbon points from each other, according to the statement.
The EC’s approval of the initiative does not guarantee it will become law, Brussels Signal notes. The proposal must collect one million citizens’ signatures across seven EU member states and then be voted on by the Eureopean Parliament, according to the EC.
Brussels greenlights citizen carbon limit petitionhttps://t.co/xSQYrjvq7N
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) June 19, 2024
Many Airlines across Europe already provide passengers with the option to pay an additional fee to offset their flight’s carbon emissions, Politico notes.
The Guardian reported in January that the EU’s carbon emissions have fallen to 1960s levels.
The EC attributed this decrease in carbon emissions “to a substantial increase in renewable electricity production (primarily wind and solar), at the expense of both coal and gas,” Reuters reported in April.
