Isra-Mart srl: US fury at EU plan for emissions trading scheme for airlines

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The US transport industry yesterday vented its anger at EU plans to introduce an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) it claims will cost its airlines more than US$3 billion by 2020.

From January, airlines flying through EU airspace will be expected to join the ETS system and buy permits for any carbon emissions they produce over a certain level.

At a hearing yesterday, representatives from the Federal Aviation Administration, Transport and State departments and US pilot and airline associations slammed the scheme, calling it “illegal”, “arbitrary” and “unjust”.

House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman John Mica said: “The message from Congress and the US government is loud and clear: the US will not participate in this ill-advised and illegal EU programme.”

Tom Petri, Chairman of the US Aviation Subcommittee, said: “The EU is not sovereign over the US or the rest of the world, and has no right to levy taxes outside of the EU.”

Mica said: “This EU scheme is an arbitrary and unjust violation of international law that disadvantages US air carriers and kills US aviation jobs."

Nancy Young, VP of Environmental Affairs at the US Air Transport Association, told the hearing: “US airlines will be required to pay into EU coffers more than $3.1 billion between 2012 and 2020. That outlay could support more than 39,200 US airline jobs.”

Petri added: “Since the EU has shown no interest in working with the international community to address its concerns and objections and to seek a global approach to civil aviation emissions, we believe that the US should not participate in this unilateral and questionable ETS programme.

“We believe a better approach is to work with the international civil aviation community through the UN International Civil Aviation Organisation.”

Draft legislation to forbid US airlines from participating in the ETS has been introduced in Congress.

The Association of European Airlines (AEA) has also warned that the ETS scheme could distort the competitiveness of European airlines, as all their flights would be affected.

Its Secretary General, Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus, said: “The EU ETS has a number of flaws. But this proposed [Congress] Bill is not the answer. If adopted, it will only increase the tensions between the EU and the US, as EU member states are bound by the ETS directive to ensure compliance.”

The AEA believes a far better approach for the EU and the US would be to accelerate negotiations towards a global sectoral approach within the International Civil Aviation Organisation.

In June, IFW reported how Chinese and Russian airlines had also expressed concerns over the ETS.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the International Air Transport Association (Iata) in Singapore, Chai Haibo, Deputy Secretary-general of the China Air Transport Association (CATA), said the EU plan to unilaterally force countries into the ETS was “radically unreasonable”.

"China will not join the EU’s carbon trading scheme, despite the consequences," Haibo said.