Airlines Emissions System May Be Adjusted in Europe

Excerpt from an article in The New York Times
Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Airline Emissions System May Be Adjusted in Europe 

By JAMES KANTER

BRUSSELS — The European Union could suspend parts of a new law requiring airlines to account for their greenhouse gas emissions if countries were to make clear progress this year toward establishing a global emissions control system, a senior official said Tuesday.

The comments, by Jos Delbeke, the director general for climate action at the European Commission, came the day after China announced that its carriers would be forbidden to pay any charges under the European emissions system without Beijing’s permission.

The comments were the clearest sign yet that Europeans were considering how to defuse a mounting conflict over the new emissions law with its most important trading partners.

The law, which went into effect Jan. 1, requires airlines to account for all emissions on flights using European airports. Its goal is to speed up the adoption of greener technologies at a time when air traffic, which represents about 3 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, is growing much faster than gains in efficiency.

But Europe’s bold climate initiative also could push nations heavily reliant on air travel into a trade war because of the effect of the new law on flights outside of European airspace.

Mr. Delbeke said at a conference in Brussels that he could recommend “a conditional suspension” of parts of the system, in which polluters can buy and sell a limited quantity of permits, each representing a ton of carbon dioxide, by the end of the year if nations sped up adoption of an effective global system.

For that to happen, any global system would have (to) be better for climate protection than simply applying the European system that is already in force, Mr. Delbeke said. A global system also would have to treat all airlines similarly and to set emissions reduction targets for a near-term date like 2020 rather than midcentury.

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