The battle over airlines emissions

By: Christopher Castro

One of the most contested global environmental initiatives ever undertaken is scheduled to get under way on New Year’s Day, when the European Union plans to begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions from airlines.

The initiative involves folding aviation into the Union’s six-year-old Emissions Trading System, in which polluters can buy and sell a limited quantity of permits, each representing a ton of carbon dioxide.

The 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.

Even so, many airlines are furious, partly because the cost of compliance could rise sharply in coming years if governments decide airlines must buy a larger proportion of their permits and if demand for the permits and their value rises.

China and the United States were among two dozen countries calling on Europe to modify or scrap its plans with just weeks to go before the system goes into force.

The parties argued that the law conflicted with existing aviation treaties and a swath of other agreements and principles. The British court then referred the case to the European court, the Union’s highest tribunal, for a preliminary ruling.