India to protest EU carbon tax on airlines

Mumbai: The Union government will protest against Europe’s carbon trading scheme for aviation at the bi-annual India-EU summit in New Delhi next month.
Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher Airlines, which fly to Europe, will get hit by the scheme, which caps aviation emissions and require airlines to purchase carbon credits to cover excess emissions. According to an industry source, the scheme may cost each Indian carrier up to euro 2.5 million (Rs 17 crore) next year. The cost varies for each of the airlines, depending on the number of flights to Europe. The scheme comes into effect from January 1.
The European Court of Justice had rejected a petition by US and Canadian airlines against the carbon trading scheme. India, China and the United States are leading the opposition against the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS), since the move to impose emission curbs is unilateral and, in some ways, extra-jurisdictional in nature. Industry bodies like the International Air Transport Association are also against the scheme.
The European court ruled that including airlines in the ETS “infringes neither the principle of territoriality nor the sovereignty of third states.’’
In September, India chaired a meeting of non-European states to voice concern against the carbon trading scheme. According to government sources, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected to take up the matter with the president of the European Commission at the India-EU summit in New Delhi in February.
01/01/12 Aneesh Phadnis/Business Standard

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Categories: Foreign Jan 2012, Indian Aviation- In General Jan 2012