IATA director general Tony Tyler said the European Union’s insistence on including aviation in its Emissions Trading Scheme, and the controversy that has erupted over its stance, is "poisoning the atmosphere that is needed to achieve a global approach" on managing aircraft carbon emissions.
Speaking to the Arab Air Carriers Organisation in Algiers, Tyler said the EU is "continuing to pursue its unilateral and extra-territorial scheme, dividing the world and recklessly risking a trade war."
"The crux of the issue is sovereignty," he said.
"States outside of Europe view Europe’s plans to tax non-European airlines flying in non-European airspace as an attack on their sovereignty.
"Saudi Arabia is the latest state to forbid its carriers from participating. China, India and Russia have done the same. The US is moving in that direction."
Tyler said Europe needed to find a way of relieving the pressure that it had created.
"There is no time to lose," he added,
