Brussels, 12/09/2012 (Agence Europe) - Germany, Spain, France and the UK have asked to delay the application of the EU climate legislation which includes civil aviation in the emissions quota trading system (ETS), to allow time for agreement to be reached on reducing emissions from air transport at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). This appeal was made on Tuesday 11 September at the launch of the ILA air show in Berlin. The governments of these member states are concerned at potential retaliatory measures from third countries such as China, which are challenging the legality of the ETS directive, which has required major airlines serving the airports of the EU to pay for 15% of the emissions quotas allocated to them since January. The four countries are the ones in which the European aviation company Airbus, which has already fallen victim to reprisals in China, are based; they fear that a commercial war could escalate if the EU starts to apply the sanctions provided in the event of failure to observe this European climate legislation as of April 2013.
As a disincentive measure, the ETS directive lays down a fine of €100 per tonne of CO2 emitted over the allocated quotas and, in the event of persistent infringement of the legislation, it could even allow the European Commission to have certain airlines banned from operating flights to or from the EU, but this is a last-resort solution.
China, which has banned its airlines from paying anything at all under the ETS without authorisation to the contrary, has not only suspended a major order from Airbus, but is threatening to ground European aircraft if Chinese airlines are fined.
Readers may recall that in March of this year, Airbus and eight airlines in turmoil jointly appealed to David Cameron, François Fillon, Angela Merkel and Mariano Rajoy to act to prevent the escalation of a commercial conflict with China and the other third countries which are challenging the inclusion of aviation in the ETS (EUROPE 10572). Negotiations are continuing at the ICAO towards an agreement on reducing emissions from air transport. (AN/transl.fl)