European leaders are expected to lobby for a tax on aviation fuel at this year's United Nations climate negotiations officially starting today in Dubai.
The bloc’s 27 member states are reportedly considering widespread changes to energy taxes that were installed in 2003 so that they align with new climate goals.
The EU’s climate chief Wopke Hoekstra, who has been in negotiations with climate ministers and diplomats since he took the post in October, is expected to adopt a ‘polluter pays’ principle at the talks, the Financial Times reported.
The UK’s representative at COP 28 this year is missing in action after Rishi Sunak’s government failed to recruit a climate envoy to represent the country, according to a separate report by The Independent.
The EU stance is likely to include calls for a possible aviation tax on polluting plane fuel, a move that has reportedly been supported by Ireland’s climate minister Eamon Ryan, who told the FT that a ‘mosaic’ of financing options will need to be agreed on to tackle climate change, including a possible shipping fuel tax.
Among the topics slated for negotiations is a possible fund to address global warming, which could be unveiled as early as today, to which the EU intends to contribute significantly.
Ahmed Al-Jaber, the head of state oil company the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) who is presiding over this year’s 28th Conference of the Parties (COP 28), has, meanwhile, proposed that governments double hydrogen production by 2030.
According to EU lobbying research and campaign group Corporate Europe Observatory, he will push to increase annual hydrogen output, which has the potential to be used as aviation fuel, to 180 million tonnes a year, up from 95 million tonnes.
Hydrogen fuel is cleaner at end use than oil because its waste byproduct is water. However, not all forms of hydrogen are equal.
The International Energy Agency estimates that 99% of hydrogen produced today derives from fossil fuels, with less than 0.1% being renewably sourced and just 0.6% estimated to come from a process that uses carbon capture.