March 28, 2024

Europe Toughens Stance on Airline Emissions

BRUSSELS — The European Commission said on Thursday that airlines that did not follow a new European law requiring them to account for their emissions of greenhouse gases could face being banned from European airports.

The warning was the latest stage in an escalating war of words between the European Union and countries like China, which have expressed fierce opposition to a law that represents the European Union’s boldest move to date to protect the climate.

The initiative went into effect at the start of the year and involves folding aviation into the European Union’s six-year-old Emissions Trading System, in which polluters can buy and sell a limited quantity of permits, each representing a ton of carbon dioxide.

A European ban on noncompliant airlines would be a measure of “very last resort” applicable only in cases of “continued noncompliance,” Isaac Valero-Ladron, the commission’s spokesman for climate action, said on Thursday at a news conference in Brussels.

Mr. Valero-Ladron said airlines would initially face fines by national authorities of 100 euros ($130) for each ton of carbon dioxide that they failed to account for under the permit system.

“We’re confident the companies will comply,” Mr. Valero-Ladron said. “The penalties for noncompliance are much higher than compliance.”

Even so, the Europeans and opponents of the system, including airlines and the authorities in China and the United States, will probably have to compromise at some stage to avoid the dispute turning into a disruptive trade war.

In the United States, the House of Representatives has already approved a bill that would bar American air carriers from participating in the system. A similar bill has been introduced in the Senate.

Airbus, the European aircraft maker, and the Association of European Airlines, an industry group, have raised concerns that a trade conflict with the United States and China could affect their businesses.

Earlier Thursday, a Chinese foreign ministry official reiterated a call for Europe to seek an international agreement on how to regulate emissions from the aviation sector before imposing “unilateral legislation,” The Associated Press reported from Beijing.

Chinese airlines have not yet decided whether to add a ticket surcharge to help offset the costs of the system or to refuse to pay the fines entirely. “It has not come to that stage yet,” said Chai Haibo, the deputy secretary-general of the China Air Transport Association, according to The Associated Press.

Chinese carriers have also threatened to bring a lawsuit, possibly in Germany, where the authorities will oversee the application of the system to several Chinese airlines.

But airlines do not need to hand over permits accounting for their emissions until April 30, 2013, and that could leave room for a compromise to be found over the next year.

Last month, the European Union’s highest tribunal, the European Court of Justice, rejected a complaint by a group of American airlines that had argued that requiring them to participate in the emissions-trading system infringed on national sovereignty and conflicted with existing international aviation treaties.

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/06/business/global/eu-toughens-stance-in-airline-carbon-dispute.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

U.S. Airlines Challenge European Emissions Rule

BRUSSELS — When the European Union’s highest court hears arguments Tuesday that Europe should not charge U.S. airlines for their carbon emissions, it will be a showdown at the crossroads of environmental protection and cold cash.

Starting Jan. 1, the Union intends to expand its Emissions Trading System to cover emissions from most flights that touch down at, or take off from, European airports. That means airlines will have to buy some of their carbon permits from traders and E.U. governments.

Promoters of the change say the rules, which were approved by the 27-nation bloc in 2008, should compel airline operators to speed up adoption of greener technologies at a time when air traffic, which contributes about 3 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, is growing much faster than efficiency gains are cutting those emissions. Many European governments say they will use the extra income to help offset spending on climate protection.

But the plan has generated fierce opposition from airlines, many of them non-European. They say that Europe has no right to charge for emissions on some routes that are mostly outside European airspace.

Air China, China Eastern and China Southern have threatened to file a lawsuit against the system, and the China Air Transport Association has suggested that Chinese airlines might buy fewer aircraft from European manufacturers. In response, Airbus and the Association of European Airlines have raised concerns about a trade conflict with China that could affect their businesses.

On Tuesday, the Air Transport Association of America, an industry group, and three major U.S. airlines — United Airlines and Continental Airlines, which merged last year, and American Airlines — will make their case at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg against the way the system will be applied by Britain.

As home to London Heathrow and other busy airports, Britain has the highest carbon dioxide emissions from aviation in the Union, making it a cornerstone of the E.U. system to regulate the sector.

A decision by the court supporting the U.S. airlines would badly damage the initiative because E.U. regulators and European airlines say that involvement of non-E.U. carriers is critical to its success. An advisory opinion could come within months, with a final judgment possible before the system takes effect in 2012.

Lawyers for the U.S. carriers are expected to argue Tuesday that the E.U. system conflicts with the Chicago Convention, an international accord that gives countries sovereignty over their airspace, and with the Kyoto Protocol, a climate treaty.

The airlines also are expected to attack the cost of the system and the lack of guarantees that revenues will be used for climate protection.

Seeking to defuse the dispute, E.U. officials have emphasized that they will exempt incoming flights if other countries take “serious measures” to reduce emissions that would be considered equivalent by the Union. E.U. officials also have begun discussions with national governments on introducing rules requiring them to use the revenues from permits to tackle climate change.

But they say delays are out of the question.

“We are not thinking at all about the possibility of changing our legislation,” José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said last month. “All the world should unite in some kind of directive like this one.”

What is clear is that by charging airlines for their carbon emissions, the European Union would do more than protect the climate. The system could be a source of revenue for countries, like Britain, with busy airports and ballooning budget deficits.

Britain already generates about £500 million, or $800 million, annually from auctioning permits to polluting industries under the Emissions Trading System, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, a government-funded body that operates independently.

It could generate a further £80 million next year from airlines, while nations across the Union could net about €480 million, or $695 million, according to estimates by bankers and analysts.

Airlines complain that some of the money they will spend on carbon permits will end up subsidizing debt-laden governments.

“Countries like Britain have reserved the right to use the money how they see fit,” said Nancy Young, a vice president at the Air Transport Association of America. “Helping Europeans out of their fiscal hole is not the aviation industry’s job.”

Article source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/04/business/global/04emissions.html?partner=rss&emc=rss