ETS under fire
February 22, 2012
Following a two-day meeting in Moscow, representatives of 26 countries opposed to the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS) agreed on a "raft of retaliatory measures," Russia's deputy transport minister, Valery Okulov told a news conference Wednesday.
The proposals include barring national airlines from participating in the ETS, lodging a formal complaint with the United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), ceasing talks with European carriers on new routes and imposing retaliatory levies on EU airlines.
"Every state will chose the most effective and reliable measures that will help to cancel or postpone the implementation of the EU's ETS," Okulov said.
He added that Russia, for example, could "reactivate an old weapon against European carriers" which was "overflight fees for Siberia" - a measure that was rescinded during the last decade.
'Hypothetical measures'
Since the beginning of 2012, global airlines using EU airports are charged for CO² emissions over the whole distance of the flight and not just in European airspace.
Opponents include Russia, China, India and the United States which have already debated the issue within the official ICAO framework - they've been dubbed "the coalition of the unwilling" by EU officials. The counter-measures include a "deeper legal assessment" of the EU law to determine "whether it complies" with World Trade Association (WTO) rules.
"The EU will defend its legislation. We are completely sure, and have been backed by the European Court of Justice that our legislation does not break international law," Isaac Valero-Ladron, EU spokesman for climate action, told a regular press briefing in Brussels.
In addition, he asked what "positive concrete measures" the Moscow talks had delivered, other than "hypothetical measures" to undermine the only existing scheme dealing with aviation emissions.
The opposition is spearheaded by the International Air Transport association (IATA), which represents the airlines. Raising fears of a "trade war", IATA's director general, Tony Tyler, told Reuters: "Europe's unilateral and extra-territorial ETS plans are clearly not acceptable to non-EU governments."
uh/nk (Reuters, AFP)