EU Governments Want Airlines in Carbon Trading Program

LUXEMBOURG (AP) - EU governments said Friday they were ready to make airlines join a carbon cap-and-trade program as "a cost-effective and promising way" to limit the amount of greenhouse gas they release.

They did not discuss the details of an EU plan that would see all airlines flying to Europe trading carbon permits.

But they said European countries would work to make sure that other nations - such as the United States - could not stop the EU from launching its airline trading system.

"Given the forecast growth in the volume of air traffic and, accordingly, its increasing environmental impacts, aviation also has to contribute to implementing the decisions of (the March EU summit) on reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions," transport ministers from the 27-nation bloc said in a statement.

EU nations were meeting ahead of international aviation talks in September that will examine how commercial aircraft from all countries could reduce the emissions that cause global warming.

Aviation is growing rapidly - particularly in Europe, where low-fare airlines have encouraged people to fly more often and in greater numbers. Emissions are increasing even though air transport releases far less than major carbon polluters in the power generation sector. They may also prove more damaging because they are released high into the atmosphere.

Airlines say they are working to make aircraft more efficient and are calling for better air traffic management systems that save fuel - ideas that the U.S. supports as a good way to limit emissions.

But Europe wants to go further and make airlines trade carbon permits, forcing them to buy more if they want to increase flights. A cap-and-trade system would give them a financial incentive to switch to cleaner technology or cut back routes because they could sell their unused permits to others.

U.S. officials have warned that the EU would likely break international aviation rules if it insists on including non-European airlines in the program - even though the EU insists its system would be legal.

EU governments said Friday that they would work to prevent others trying to block EU carbon trading at International Civil Aviation Organization talks in September.

"The council (of ministers) invites EU member states to do everything they can at the ICAO assembly ... to ensure that ICAO continues its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation (and) any agreement reached in ICAO does not prevent the (EU), either in principle or in practice, from including international aviation in the European emissions trading scheme in line with the principle of equal treatment," they said in a statement.

On Wednesday, European airlines complained that the EU trading program - as it stands - would cripple them with annual costs of euro4 billion (US$5.4 billion) a year that would stifle growth and come close to wiping out their profits.

British deputy transport minister Stephen Ladyman told reporters that this was an opening shot in an ongoing negotiation, saying they might not like other ways to cut back carbon.

"Things like flat taxes on passengers or flat taxes on aircraft movements, aviation fuel taxes ... which are directly intended to reduce the amount of flying we do but don't provide any incentives to make flying more efficient, those would be even less acceptable to the aviation industry," he said.

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