EU Carbon Regulation Spurs Collective Lawsuite
Helen YoungUS based weekly magazine Business Week has reported that Air Transport Association (ATA) has been joined by US passenger commercial carriers American Airlines, United Airlines and Continental in a bid to undertake a collective lawsuite targeting the United Kingdom concerning the planned introduction of European Union emissions trading schemes (ETS) in the country.
A London court filing revealed that on December 16, the United Kingdom Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change ha been sued in British court by ATA and the US airlines, which were claiming that the EU rules were a directly breaching the U.S.-EU bilateral Air Transport Agreement established in April 2007 as well as the Kyoto Protocol.
The EU emissions trading scheme regulations will demand from carriers that they cap their emissions, and require them to purchase carbon permits if they surpass those caps.
The Carbon Trust, which is based in the UK, has predicted that between 2012 and 2020, the amount disbursed by airlines for carbon permits could reach as much as 35 billion Euros ($50 billion).
ATA VP-environmental affairs Nancy Young reported to Aviation Week that all non-EU countries still oppose the EU ETS to non-EU airlines’ unilateral application.
The European Union has expressed its desire to use the Emissions Trading Schemes as temporary solution applied for the control of emissions produced by airlines until a more comprehensive worldwide solution can be found and agreed to.
But international law is in the path of this well-intentioned move.
The U.S. carriers said that because the huge majority of its fights don’t occur within European air space, airlines running such routes should not be required to buy these EU carbon permits.
Meanwhile, commercial carriers have begun testing various bio-fuels in a bid to reduce emissions in the future. As well, Boeing’s latest project, the state of the art 787, had its initial flight last week and is expected to be 20% more efficient in terms carbon emissions compared to similar airplanes.
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