Originally Posted by
EW73
For my benefit...the quote:
how does forcing the airlines to pay multi-millions of dollars per year help in reducing carbon emissions?
If generating emissions costs money, airlines, being businesses, will try to reduce that cost. In theory this could be by buying more efficient planes, or putting more effort into getting more efficient airspace & routes. However, I believe the scheme is based on "tonne-kilometres", there appears to be no advantages in investing in more efficient planes.
Also, it's trying to create a carbon economy. Take someone in a different industry saves carbon emissions. This means that they will be using up less than their quota, so they can sell their extra quota to airlines to use. This means they will be able to make money by reducing their own emissions. This all depends on how you calculate the "saving" and "quota" that they achieved.