By Martin Banks - 8th February 2012
Aviation is the fastest growing source of transport greenhouse gas emissions
Transport and Environment
A senior commission official has denied that Europe's emissions trading scheme (ETS) is "discriminatory".
Jos Delbeke, the director general for climate action at the commission, was speaking in the wake of the row over the ETS which imposes charges on carbon emissions.
The scheme is opposed by more than two dozen countries, including India, Russia and the United States.
On Monday, China entered the fray, saying it had banned its airlines which are expected to carry half a billion passengers in 2015 from complying with the scheme which came into effect on 1 January.
The Chinese state media went so far as to predict the row could lead to a "trade war" in the sector.
But, speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, Delbeke said, "Our legislation is not discriminatory in nature and we will not accept any discriminatory or retaliatory action against it."
He said that suspending the EU-ETS was 'out of the question', adding, "That's not how we work in Europe. International targets must be accompanied by policy measures."
His comments were echoed by German MEP Peter Liese EPP MEP, who defended the ETS following the Chinese 'ban'.
Liese said discussions had already taken place within the environment committee over how to adapt the new law in the event that other nations, perhaps through the International Civil Aviation Organisation, put "something convincing on the table".
A summit next week between the EU and China will attempt to defuse what is seen as a mounting conflict.
The ETS law requires airlines to account for all emissions on flights using European airports. Its goal is to speed up the adoption of greener technologies at a time when air traffic represents about two per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions.
But the Chinese and others fear that Europe's initiative could push nations heavily reliant on air travel into a trade war because of the effect of the new law on flights outside of European airspace.
Both Liese and Delbeke were keynote speakers at the conference, jointly organised by the Norwegian mission to the EU.
A report by the group Transport and Environment, which was distributed at the conference, said that global carbon dioxide emissions from the civil aviation sector in 2005 were 630 million tones.
This represents over two per cent of global CO2 emissions and is 15 per cent higher than the CO2 emissions from the entire UK economy in the same year
The report said that aviation is the "fastest growing" source of transport greenhouse gas emissions on the planet.
Emissions, it says, have more than doubled in the past 20 year and, in 2008, the sector along with shipping, accounted for a quarter of total transport emissions.
