Regional Round-Up
European carriers rally against ETS
June 1st 2012
The row over the European Union’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) rumbles on with even its own carriers turning against them. Read More »
At the Association of European Airlines (AEA) Presidents’ Assembly in Brussels, International Consolidated Airlines Group (IAG) chief executive, Willie Walsh, said IAG would incur an estimated 15 million (US$18.72 million) cost in its first quarter thanks to the controversial scheme.
Similarly, Bernard Gustin, AEA chairman and co-CEO of Brussels Airlines, slammed the EU for being “arrogant”.
However, Isaac Valero-Ladron, a spokesman for the EU Climate Action Commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, responded: “The truth is that the increase [for passengers] is less than the cost of a cup of coffee at the airport.”
At the AEA, the importance of avoiding a trade war was repeatedly stressed, but that was not the case with non-compliance of the scheme by Chinese and Indian airlines and cancellations of £8.8 billion in Airbus aircraft orders by the Chinese in a bid to retaliate against the EU’s imposing scheme.
Even Airbus’ chief operating officer, customers, John Leahy, empathized with the Chinese stating: “I can only imagine what the EU’s reaction would have been if China had tried to put a tax on European airspace.”
A possible compromise on the ETS may be on the way for China, if Beijing plays a more prominent role in negotiating global regulations. According to the Associated Press, a global solution to the carbon trading scheme is in the works in conjunction with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The director of aviation for the EU, Matthew Baldwin, specifically appealed to China to play a “stronger role” in the ICAO talks, and continued to state that Europe may alter its own scheme if a global solution is reached.
At the China Civil Aviation Development Forum in Beijing last month, the director general of the International Air Transport Association, Tony Tyler, said: “China is in the front line of state opposition to Europe’s misguided plans to include international aviation in the ETS …We believe the EU’s unilateral action is in contravention of the Chicago Convention ...I fully understand why China views this as an attack on its sovereignty …We continue to urge a solution through the ICAO process.”
