BRUSSELS — The European Commission said Monday that it would seek to delay a plan to charge foreign airlines for greenhouse gas emissions for one year, potentially removing one of the most contentious issues clouding trade relations with China, India and the United States.
The system, which requires airlines using an airport in Europe to obtain or buy permits corresponding to the amount of gases they emit, had generated intense opposition among foreign governments. They accused the European Union of violating their sovereignty and unfairly raising the costs paid by airlines from developing countries by imposing its environmental standards on the world.
Europe had insisted the law was necessary because of a failure to control pollution from air traffic, which represents about 3 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions and is growing much faster than efforts to cut them.
Connie Hedegaard, the E.U. climate commissioner, said she had asked the Union’s 27 governments to “stop the clock” on the system for one year; the first payments under the program would have been due in April.
But she threatened to re-impose the rule if there was not sufficient progress in establishing a global system to cut the emissions.
“Let me be very clear: If this exercise does not deliver — and I hope it does — then needless to say we are back to where we are today,” she said.
The International Air Transport Association, an industry group, and Airbus, the European aircraft manufacturer, welcomed the decision. But some environmental groups and analysts suggested that Ms. Hedegaard had capitulated too quickly.
Europe “has moved further than necessary given the little progress made so far at I.C.A.O.,” said Bill Hemmings, a program manager at Transport Environment, an environmental organization. He was referring to the International Civil Aviation Organization, an arm of the United Nations.
Ms. Hedegaard said her recommendation followed a meeting Friday at theI.C.A.O. at which member states decided to set up a policy group to agree on a global, market-based system for regulating airline emissions.
In reality, Ms. Hedegaard’s decision was a long-awaited retreat by the Union in the face of concerted international opposition, including the refusal to participate in the system by China Eastern, Air India and other airlines, and efforts by U.S. lawmakers to prevent American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and others from making payments.
A number of governments had threatened to review bilateral and “open skies” agreements on landing rights, market access and other matters and stop considering new routes or capacity.
Airbus had warned that Chinese carriers had halted some aircraft orders to signal their dissatisfaction with the European law.
On Monday, Airbus said it was “encouraged” by Ms. Hedegaard’s decision and said the talks at I.C.A.O. last week brought “the aviation industry one step closer to a coordinated, globally acceptable approach to better manage civil aviation emissions.”
The re-election of President Barack Obama last week may have made Ms. Hedegaard’s decision easier, because Mr. Obama is expected to help in the push for a global system.
The European emissions law was approved in 2008, and the system went into force on Jan. 1, 2012, requiring foreign airlines to comply with new registration and reporting procedures.
The system requires an airline landing or taking off in Europe to acquire permits corresponding to the amount of greenhouse gases emitted during the entire flight — regardless of where it originated or ended or the nationality of the airline.
Airlines faced fines of €100, or $127, for each excess ton of carbon dioxide emissions that they failed to offset by buying permits. Repeated breaches could have led to a ban from European airports.
The initial payments due on April 30, 2013, were expected to be modest. But airlines were furious because they could face big bills as the number of permits they needed to purchase was expected to rise in the coming years.
Airlines “will look to sell these allowances back, quite possibly at a loss,” said Andreas Arvanitakis, a director at Thomson Reuters Point Carbon. “So much for early-mover advantage. It looks like it’s the early worm that gets eaten by the bird.”
To halt the law, Ms. Hedegaard still must prepare additional legislation to modify the current rules. E.U. officials said they had already met with governments and with members of the European Parliament to ensure easy passage.
The decision means there will no longer be charges borne by airlines serving major international routes like Frankfurt-Beijing or London-New York next year. But the system would still apply within the Union for flights between airports within the bloc — and some European carriers called on Monday for Ms. Hedegaard to exempt them, too.
The system “will damage traffic, tourism, European competitiveness and jobs at a time when no other economic bloc is including aviation” in their emissions control systems, said Stephen McNamara, a spokesman for Ryanair, a low-cost airline.
Charging airlines serving European routes for pollution while exempting the rest of the world “is clearly an unsatisfactory situation in anything but the shortest term,” said the Association of European Airlines, which includes British Airways, Lufthansa and Virgin Atlantic.
The association warned that the I.C.A.O. was “notoriously slow-moving,” and it said countries including the United States, Russia, China and India — which have said the I.C.A.O., rather than Europe, should deal with the issue of aviation emissions — now “have the chance to show that they mean it.”
Ms. Hedegaard said that would give the negotiators at the organization the chance to reach a global agreement by next September or October. But she warned that failure to reach an agreement would mean the European system would be applied in full again after 2013.
Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/business/global/eu-postpones-charges-for-airline-emissions.html?partner=rss&emc=rss