Brussels, 31/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - There is increasing pressure on the European Union's carbon trading system, ETS, ahead of a meeting of a coalition of ETS detractors in Washington on Wednesday 31 July and Thursday 1 August 2012, organised by the US State Department and Department of Transportation (see EUROPE 10665). On Wednesday, the US Senate's Trade Committee will vote on a law banning US airlines from complying with the ETS directive. EU Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard refuses to budge and urges the 17 recalcitrant nations to find a solution at the International Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO), of which they are all members, to address the problem of reducing aviation carbon emissions in order to deal with climate change rather than attacking EU rules, particularly because the US authorities say the Washington meeting aims to find ways to speed up progress towards a solution that all ICAO members can go along with.
On 30 July, Hedegaard called the United States' bluff in a tweet in which she said the EU was eagerly awaiting tangible details from the countries meeting in Washington about how they plan to slash aviation emissions.
The Commissioner's call for a constructive, practical and comprehensive solution rather than attacking EU rules (the legality of which has been confirmed by the European Court of Justice) has been the European Commission's stock argument ever since the non-EU countries opposed the idea of their airlines being forced to abide by the ETS from 1 January 2012 onwards. This means they have to pay for 15% of the quotas allocated to them for flights to and from the EU under the new directive adding aviation to the ETS rules.
In Washington on 30 July, US airlines and the US Chamber of Commerce raised the stakes by urging the US government to stand firm against the EU within the ICAO. In an open letter to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US Transport Minister Ray Lahood, US airlines and the US Chamber of Commerce urge the EU to stop trying to force them to comply with the EU's rules. (AN/transl.fl)