The carriers are accused of not providing emissions data, as required by the European rules, and not participating in a permit system that entitles airlines to emit greenhouse gases in European airspace.
The volumes of carbon dioxide that the European Commission said the 10 carriers emitted through their jet engines in Europe last year was comparable to the emissions from burning about 130 rail cars of coal.
The commission said the eight Chinese carriers could face fines totaling €2.4 million, or $3 million, and the two Indian airlines face total fines of €30,000.
So far the emissions rules apply only to flights within Europe, and European carriers and most non-European airlines have complied. Still hotly debated, though, is the planned expansion of the system next January to include international flights in and out of Europe.
Japan, Russia and the United States, as well as China and India, were among about two dozen countries that protested against that expansion early last year.
The resistance by the Chinese and Indian airlines to even the intra-Europe part of the program highlights the fierce opposition, particularly in emerging economies, to environmental rules imposed by Europe on companies and organizations in other parts of the world.
No airlines have been fined yet for violating the permit system, and the program does not present them with huge costs, at least initially. The system has added less than €1 to the cost of flights from, say, Paris to Rome.
The warning Thursday to the Chinese and Indian carriers derived from their failure to report their emissions to the national authorities and their missing of an April 30 deadline for handing over sufficient numbers of permits to the national authorities to cover their emissions last year. The European Commission, the Union’s administrative arm, which made the announcement, oversees the system.
Connie Hedegaard, the Union’s commissioner for climate action, said there was no excuse for the airlines to ignore Europe’s system.
“It’s not so that when we make our European laws, then we say they count for everybody except for Chinese and Indians — and that is no different in the aviation sector,” Ms. Hedegaard. “It shows how controversial and difficult it is to get to the adequately ambitious outcome we need in global aviation.”
Officials from the Chinese Mission to the European Union did not have any immediate comment. The Indian authorities, and officials at Air India and Jet Airways, the other Indian airline accused of violating the Union’s rules, could not immediately be reached for comment.
The resistance by the Chinese and Indian carriers against going along with even the intra-European portion of the emissions regulations is only one of the snags in the Union’s program, which is the world’s most extensive effort to control greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide. It relies on the use of permits for the right to emit at certain levels, essentially requiring producers of greenhouse gases to pay for the right to emit them.
The system was established eight years ago, initially to cover heavy industry in Europe, but it has lately been on the verge of collapse. That is in large part because the weak European economy has somewhat curtailed emissions- producing activity, weakening demand for the permits. Another factor is that the national authorities gave too many permits away to sectors like the steel industry. Prices are currently at levels too low to force polluters to change to cleaner practices.
By expanding the program last year to include airlines, and the greenhouse gases emitted by jet engines, the European Union made its farthest-reaching move yet to protect the environment.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/17/business/global/17iht-emit17.html?partner=rss&emc=rss