Brussels 12 July 2023

CountEmissions EU proposal welcomed as a vital first step: but more commitment is needed says BT4Europe

BT4Europe, representing European buyers and users of business travel services, welcomes the Commission proposal, but is urging EU legislators in the European Parliament and European Council to go further to strengthen the proposal.

This initiative aims to create a common framework to calculate and report transport-related greenhouse gas emissions. According to the European Commission, transparent information will allow service providers to monitor and reduce their emissions and improve the efficiency of their transport services and will enable users to choose the most sustainable option.

The CountEmissions EU proposal is a welcome and vital first step, but more commitment is needed says Angela Lille, chair of BT4Europe’s Sustainability Working Group.

Angela Lille says: ‘The business travel industry, with millions of Europeans travelling on business every year, sustains thousands of jobs across Europe and can play a vital role in promoting a switch to more sustainable transport. Business travel buyers want to make greener choices, but reliable data on environmental footprint is missing today.  Currently a myriad of standards for CO2 exists, which makes reporting incoherent and questionable, so a proposal for a single voluntary standard to count GHG emissions from transport is a welcome and vital first step, but more commitment is needed.

We will push regulators to widen the scope to include accommodation. Technically, this is not transportation, but hotel, apartments, conferences and events are an integral part of business travel.

Secondly, given CO2 emissions data is more readily available, we argue why not start with a standard CO2 emissions calculation methodology for business travel services. Among others, it would improve the quality of the obligatory non-financial reports regulated by the CSRD.

Third, it is vital to develop a default value, because we want to drive travel decisions at point-of-sale. Correct reporting is not enough for driving a demand change.

Fourth, require all travel service suppliers to provide, free of charge, a standardised CO2 calculation baseline and the corresponding CO2 emissions in digital form for companies of all sizes.

Finally, we must export the final CountEmission EU standard into other regions of importance for European business travel, e.g. North America, because ultimately a global standard is needed.’