{"id":2793,"date":"2020-04-30T08:05:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T06:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/?p=2793"},"modified":"2020-06-04T20:39:49","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T18:39:49","slug":"airlines-polluters-bailouts-double-to-26bn-without-binding-green-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/issues\/climate-energy\/2793\/airlines-polluters-bailouts-double-to-26bn-without-binding-green-conditions\/","title":{"rendered":"Airline bailouts set to double to \u20ac26bn as countries fail to impose binding green conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

**Note: as of 5 June 2020 the bailout amount has increased to \u20ac32 billion. Up-to-date bailout tracker here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Brussels –<\/strong> Airline polluters are now seeking more than \u20ac26 billion in taxpayers\u2019 money – double the amount of just a week ago – according to the European airline bailout tracker<\/a> compiled by Carbon Market Watch, Greenpeace and Transport & Environment. Governments have agreed \u20ac11.5 billion in financial aid and a further \u20ac14.6 billion is under discussion. None come with binding environmental conditions for airlines to clean up their act.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n

Air France-KLM will receive up to \u20ac11 billion in financial aid from the French and Dutch governments, while Germany has reportedly<\/a> agreed to plough \u20ac9 billion into Lufthansa. Air France\u2019s loan guarantee comes with non-binding requests to reduce emissions on domestic flights and buy more fuel-efficient planes. There is no request to tackle pollution from non-domestic flights, which are responsible for 90%<\/a> of airline emissions in Europe.<\/p>\n\n

Lorelei Limousin, Greenpeace EU climate campaigner<\/strong>, said: \u201cInjecting taxpayers\u2019 money into one of the world\u2019s most polluting industries – with no strings attached – makes no sense at all. Without binding conditions, airlines are already threatening to dump thousands of staff and continue to pump out massive amounts of climate-wrecking emissions. If the European Green Deal means something, short-haul flights have to go and investments need to roll out more clean alternatives like trains.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Andrew Murphy, aviation manager at Transport & Environment<\/strong>, said: \u201cFrance\u2019s green requests are a first but we had non-binding commitments for years and airline pollution ballooned. Marginally more efficient planes won\u2019t put a dent in emissions if airlines still burn fossil fuels that they buy tax-free. Governments should require the industry to take up greener fuels and pay taxes like the rest of us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Gilles Dufrasne, policy officer at Carbon Market Watch<\/strong>, said: \u201cWe must avoid a social catastrophe, but blank cheque bailouts to airlines are not the solution. They will simply put the sector back on its totally unsustainable growth path. Any bailouts must be just, both socially and environmentally.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Worryingly, Germany\u2019s environment minister has indicated<\/a> that now is not the moment to \u2018green\u2019 a Lufthansa bailout, adding \u201cbut there will be a time after the crisis\u201d. However, Austria\u2019s vice-chancellor<\/a> and transport minister have both said any bailout for Lufthansa subsidiary Austrian Airlines should come with climate conditions.<\/p>\n\n

The European Commission\u2019s climate chief Frans Timmermans supports governments applying environmental conditions to state aid.[1] However, competition boss Margrethe Vestager opposes greening the EU\u2019s guidelines for public support.[2] The Commission should issue guidelines to ensure taxpayers\u2019 money is only given with social and environmental requirements attached, the NGOs argued.<\/p>\n\n

Air France increased its emissions within Europe by 5.7% in 2019 alone.[3] KLM emissions were up 3.5%. Aviation has been one of the fastest-growing contributors to climate change<\/a> over the last two decades, with a 24.5% increase in emissions over the past five years on flights within Europe. <\/p>\n\n

At the same time, the sector depends heavily on public support \u2014 from tax exemptions from VAT and kerosene tax, to state aid for airports<\/a>, low-cost airlines and infrastructure linking airports with nearby cities. Airlines also get 85% of their allocated pollution permits for free<\/a> under the EU\u2019s carbon market. The kerosene tax exemption in Europe alone is valued at \u20ac27 billion a year<\/a>. Other more sustainable transportation methods \u2014 such as rail \u2014 have not benefited from such generous tax treatment.<\/p>\n\n

More detailed information is available in the European airline bailout tracker<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

View Greenpeace\u2019s five demands<\/a> for a just transition towards aviation de-growth and clean transport solutions.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n

\u2013 ends \u2013<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Notes<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n

[1] On 21 April 2020, European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans told a hearing of the European Parliament environment committee:<\/p>\n\n

\u201cOn state aid, and other investment strategies, the question that was put to me was can member states apply criteria such as greening with state aid? The answer to that is yes. […]\u201d<\/p>\n\n

[2] Politico<\/a><\/em>, 20 April 2020. Direct state-aid conditionality not best green recipe, Vestager says<\/p>\n\n

[3] https:\/\/www.transportenvironment.org\/press\/big-airline-polluters-grew-emissions-2019-ahead-expected-covid-drop<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Contacts<\/strong>:<\/p>\n\n

Lorelei Limousin<\/strong> – Greenpeace EU climate campaigner: +32 (0)477 790415, lorelei.limousin@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Mark Breddy<\/strong> – Greenpeace EU head of communications: +32(0)496 156229, mark.breddy@greenpeace.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Andrew Murphy<\/strong> – Transport & Environment aviation manager: +32 48500 12 14, andrew@transportenvironment.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Eoin Bannon<\/strong> – Transport & Environment media manager: eoin.bannon@transportenvironment.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Gilles Dufrasne<\/strong> – Carbon Market Watch policy officer: +32 491 91 60 70, gilles.dufrasne@carbonmarketwatch.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Kaisa Amaral<\/strong> – Carbon Market Watch communications director: +32 485 07 68 90, kaisa.amaral@carbonmarketwatch.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n

<\/p>\n\n

For breaking news and comment on EU affairs: www.twitter.com\/GreenpeaceEU<\/a><\/p>\n\n

Greenpeace is an independent global campaigning organisation that acts to change attitudes and behaviour, to protect and conserve the environment and to promote peace. Greenpeace does not accept donations from governments, the EU, businesses or political parties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Airline polluters are now seeking more than \u20ac26 billion in taxpayers\u2019 money – double the amount of just a week ago – according to the European airline bailout tracker compiled by Carbon Market Watch, Greenpeace and Transport & Environment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[40],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-2793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-energy","tag-transport","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2793"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3961,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2793\/revisions\/3961"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2793"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/eu-unit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=2793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}