The global plan to have the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) devise a system to regulate the airline industry’s greenhouse gas emissions is looking very shaky, commentators say.
Last November, the EU suspended for one year a controversial scheme - the emissions trading system or EU ETS tax - to force all airlines to buy carbon credits for any flight arriving in or departing from European airspace.
It did so to give ICAO time to develop and win support for an alternative system and also gained the EU breathing space after a number of significant trading partners including China, the United States, India and others said the ETS ‘violated their sovereignty’.
The EU has promised to reintroduce the ETS unless it sees real progress by ICAO, which meets only once every three years.
But as reported in our on line news service in early May there still is no progress on how to charge for cross-border emissions, how to deal fairly with emerging economies and whether airlines, states or both should pay any charges.
Lack of a concrete solution could prompt a trade war, with the US prohibiting US airlines from complying with the EU law, India threatening not only to refuse to participate in the ETS but also to ‘retaliate’ and China poised to reintroduce a retaliatory blockade of European goods.
ICAO struggles with ETS fundamentals
AirCargo Archive Stories #223
Monday, 27 May 2013
The global plan to have the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) devise a system to regulate the airline industry’s greenhouse gas emissions is looking very shaky, commentators say.
Last November, the EU suspended for one year a controversial scheme - the emissions trading system or EU ETS tax - to force all airlines to buy carbon credits for any flight arriving in or departing from European airspace.
It did so to give ICAO time to develop and win support for an alternative system and also gained the EU breathing space after a number of significant trading partners including China, the United States, India and others said the ETS ‘violated their sovereignty’.
The EU has promised to reintroduce the ETS unless it sees real progress by ICAO, which meets only once every three years.
But as reported in our on line news service in early May there still is no progress on how to charge for cross-border emissions, how to deal fairly with emerging economies and whether airlines, states or both should pay any charges.
Lack of a concrete solution could prompt a trade war, with the US prohibiting US airlines from complying with the EU law, India threatening not only to refuse to participate in the ETS but also to ‘retaliate’ and China poised to reintroduce a retaliatory blockade of European goods.
