World airline carbon trade war edges nearer

Image source YAPTA blog

11 retaliatory measures considered by airlines at Moscow meeting

More than 20 countries are sending representatives to a meeting which started on Tuesday, with the US, India and China expected to play key roles.

Apparently, a discussion paper prepared for the meeting, shows the group will consider 11 retaliatory measures against the EU’s move to include all big airlines in its emissions trading system.

The measures include:

• re-opening existing trade agreements in sectors other than aviation to put "pressure on EU industries";
• imposing new charges on European airlines flying into non-EU countries;
• suspending current and future negotiations about EU airline requests for new routes or airport destinations;
• enacting legislation to ban their airlines from complying with the EU law.

China has already told its carriers to ignore the EU legislation which took effect from January 1 and US legislators are attempting to push a similar measure through Congress.

So far no country has taken such drastic measures as those outlined in the Moscow meeting discussion paper.

Connie Hedegaard, the EU climate commissioner, has said that instead of trying to derail the only attempt to curb aviation emissions now operating, the countries meeting in Moscow should make concrete suggestions for an even better, global solution.

Until such a global agreement entered force, she said the EU legislation would continue to apply to all aircraft flying from and to the EU.

"It should be clear by now that threats won’t solve this problem," she told the UK Financial Times. "I think it would be much more forward looking to hear from these countries what kind of global system [to lower emissions] they are now prepared to agree to."

It is not clear which countries will end up signing up to whatever steps the Moscow meeting decides to take, nor how many nations will be represented there.

A group of 26 countries, including the US, China, Russia, India, Brazil and Japan, signed a joint declaration opposing the EU’s move at a November meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the UN agency that sets airline standards.

The countries opposing the EU’s charges claim they are unfair and violate international aviation agreements.

The European Court of Justice, Europe’s highest court, ruled in December the EU plan was compatible with international law.

Valere Tjolle

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