Chinese and US airlines not happy about joining the EU Emissions Trading Scheme

From the start of next year, the European Union plans to make all airlines using European airports pay for their carbon "pollution" under the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). However, the Chinese and the Americans are not not just happily joining the EU airlines in this new showcase of European Union climate madness, which will considerably increase the costs for already hard hit airlines:

On 6 June, the China Air Transport Association (CATA) said that it would back legal action to prevent the ETS from being applied to the 16 Chinese airlines which have the right to operate between China and Europe.

A legal challenge by a US air industry group is also due to be heard by the EU Court of Justice on 5 July.

Particularly the Chinese reaction has got both the German and the French governments worried, because the Chinese - with big Airbus orders -

Chinese threats of trade retaliation against European airlines has now got both the French and the German government as well as Airbus (with China as a major customer) worried:

Germany and France have both complained to Brussels about an escalating row over bringing foreign airlines into the EU's cap-and-trade scheme. Diplomats say Berlin will not rule out a challenge to the flagship EU legislation involved.

The Danish EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard is still playing tough:

"If nations and regions do not defend their legitimate right to legislate," Hedegaard says, "it would send an extremely unfortunate signal and create problems not just for the global climate but also for European companies and businesses".
Signed by Commissioner Hedegaard, the letter was also approved by Transport Commissioner Kallas and Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht, and it was supported by Commission President José Manuel Barroso, Valero said.

Commission officials believe that if Brussels backs down on the third and most critical phase of the ETS, its flagship policy will lose momentum, and it will lose international respect.

Read the entire article here

PS

The main argument of the EU bureaucrats seems to be that backing down would mean that their climate change "flagship policy" will "lose international respect"! It is difficult to see how this bogus global warming project could lose any international respect, because it never had any respect in the real world. On must hope that the Chinese and the Americans will be able to postpone - or still better - to prevent this new climate madness from ever being introduced!