Airlines can be charged for carbon pollution, court rules

Airlines can be charged for their greenhouse gas emissions on flights to and from Europe, according to a landmark court ruling on Thursday.
The indicative ruling, by the advocate general of the European court of justice, is a blow to airlines and non-European governments that had hoped to escape from the extension of the European Union's emissions trading scheme to cover air transport from next year. It was greeted with jubilation by environmental campaigners, who want to ensure that emissions from aviation are subject to the same controls as those of other industries.
If the ruling is followed, airlines will be forced from next year to pay for their carbon emissions on all flights to and from, as well as within, Europe.
Sarah Burt, staff attorney at the campaigning organisation Earthjustice, said: "In the absence of an effective global measure for reining in greenhouse gases from aviation, the EU law is a necessary step to address this significant and rapidly expanding source of pollution. We are pleased that the advocate general's opinion confirms the legality of this important action."
If successful, Europe's move to include international flights in its emissions trading system will be the first time that emissions from flights – which make up about 2 to 3% of global greenhouse gases – have been regulated. Aviation and maritime transport were explicitly excluded from the 1997 Kyoto protocol, the only international binding treaty on emissions reduction.
Air industry bodies that helped bring the case to court vowed to fight on. The Air Transport Association said: "[We are] disappointed that Advocate General Kokott does not believe that the European Union is bound by the Chicago Convention, the treaty governing aviation, and that the unilateral application of the EU [emissions trading sytem] to international aviation otherwise does not violate law. ATA's view that the extension of this unilateral, regional scheme to aviation violates international law is supported by more than 20 countries, including Brazil, Russia, India, China, Japan, the United States and many others, which recently reconfirmed their opposition to the EU."
06/10/11 Fiona Harvey/Guardian.co.uk

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Categories: Foreign Oct 2011, Indian Aviation- In General Oct 2011