EU air emissions plan would hit US flights
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Date: Thurs, Nov 16 2006 12:36 pm
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EU air emissions plan would hit US flights

Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit

sent by Simon McGuinness

EU OBserver - Nov 16, 2006
http://euobserver.com/9/22884/?rk=1

EU air emissions plan would hit US flights

By Helena Spongenberg

Brussels aims to include the rest of the world in the European Union's
latest green policy plan set to impose CO2 emission controls on all
flights within and entering Europe, according to a leaked draft
proposal
from the European Commission.

The plan, which will require all flights arriving or departing from EU
airports to buy permits to cover their carbon dioxide emissions, will
be
presented just before Christmas and is crucial to the bloc's fight
against global warning and climate change.

The report estimates that passengers on flights within Europe would pay
an extra ?9 for a ticket, with the actual sum depending on the price of
the permits. Those flying long haul would pay up to ?39.60, according
to
The Times.

Although aircraft only account for two percent of CO2 emissions, the EU
executive office warns that emissions are on the increase due to the
boom in airline travel ? especially after the arrival of low-cost
flights.

"Emissions from all flights arriving at and departing from EU airports
should be included," the draft states, according to the International
Herald Tribune.

However, if other countries introduce similar measures, Brussels would
drop its rule on the return trip to these countries.

The move is likely to anger the US - the Association of European
Airlines (AEA) said the proposal could provoke a trade war between the
US and the EU raising the risk of flight restrictions and sanctions on
European goods.

"We could see another trade war," David Henderson from the AEA told
IHT,
and cited stiff opposition from the US several years ago against
European plans aimed at reducing jet engine noise.

If the European Parliament and EU governments accept the proposal, it
would force airlines to monitor pollution from 2010 and fall in with
emissions targets starting from 1 January 2011.

The airline emission controls would come under already existing
European
emissions trading scheme (ETS), which was launched in 2005 as the
cornerstone of EU efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions under the
1997
Kyoto Protocol.

Like the current emission targets, national governments would be
responsible for managing emission targets for air carriers in their
country and for foreign airlines that use their airports the most
frequently when entering the EU.

That would mean that France, Germany and the UK would have the
responsibility over many of the foreign airlines as these rely mainly
on
the international hubs of Paris Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt and
Heathrow airports.

Planes belonging to foreign heads of state, monarchs, their families
and
the military would be exempt from the new EU rules, as would planes
carrying fewer than 20 people.

Planes using European airspace but not touching down would also be
exempt.