EU scales back plans to limit airline emissions

By James Kanter

PARIS: European Union governments on Thursday scaled back a draft law that would regulate emissions from any airline landing in or taking off from Europe. But the ministers still agreed to implement key measures within five years - raising the stakes in a battle with the United States over global environmental regulation.

EU environment officials have promoted the airline bill as the centerpiece of a European effort to lead the world in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but the U.S. government and many airlines have insisted there should be an international agreement first. Airlines also say the EU action could cost billions of euros and drive up ticket prices. But EU ministers said they had struck a victory for the environment despite their revisions, which include delaying the start date by one year and reducing the amount of permits that airlines would have to buy.

"This is a bold step by Europe in the week after the Bali agreement which shows the EU leading in the fight against dangerous climate change," said Hilary Benn, the British environment secretary. He was referring to a UN conference in Indonesia this month at which governments pledged to make deep cuts in emissions.

Environmentalists immediately criticized the decision as hypocritical in the wake of the pledges made in Bali. "It's a shameful end to a year filled with promise for action on climate change," said João Vieira of Transport and Environment, a group based in Brussels that campaigns for sustainable transport. "If environment ministers get their way, the scheme simply won't cut emissions, and will end up being yet another subsidy to the aviation industry." Vieira said that the aviation rules as they now stand would let the aviation industry pollute 90 percent more than it did in 1990 - even as other industrial sectors in Europe are making progress toward lowering their emissions compared with 1990 levels.

At a meeting in Brussels, EU ministers agreed to delay the start of the system by one year, to 2012, compared with the recommendation for 2011 made last month by the European Parliament. The ministers also proposed that carriers buy 10 percent of the permits they need under an auction system, with the rest distributed free of charge - although the parliament had recommended that airlines should be obliged to buy a quarter of all permits. The legislation must still go back to the parliament for a second reading early next year before final approval by governments, expected by the end of 2008.

The system would set a limit for how much carbon dioxide airlines will be able to emit, allowing them to sell surplus permits if they fly less or use greener technology, and punishing them with extra costs if they want to use more fuel. Aage Dünhaupt, a spokesman for the German carrier Lufthansa, said it was inevitable that legislation would eventually come into force now that governments had backed the proposal. But he complained that the rules were unfair to airlines like Lufthansa because of the high levels of congestion over European skies.

Dünhaupt said the congestion was forcing the carrier to emit more than was necessary, and he said that his airline would lobby for air-traffic control systems to be simplified as a precondition for final approval of the legislation. "We are not generally opposing the scheme, but we do need to have it in a broader context, especially to make flight paths quite a lot shorter," he said. The proposal mirrors an existing carbon credit trading system the EU uses to combat global warming and meet its emissions targets under the Kyoto Protocol. Under the current system - which exempted airlines - governments set carbon dioxide limits for producers of power, cement, fuels, pulp and paper. Companies must then purchase credits if they exceed those targets.

Airlines will be regulated by the EU country in which they run the majority of their flights. Under a compromise reached Thursday over how revenue from the auction system would be spent, governments agreed to put funds raised from the auctions toward national climate-protection programs - although spending the money on those programs would not be mandatory. The airline industry has been fiercely lobbying against the legislation and has branded the moves by Europe as an ineffective regional attempt to tackle a problem that requires a global solution. U.S. government officials have said that the Europeans risk breaking rules on international aviation rules if they force non-European airlines into the system. Airline lobbyists have warned that Europe risks igniting a trade war with the United States if it insists on moving ahead without an international agreement.

To be continue in other article...

(Jakarta, Kamis 21 February 2008, 07.39 pagi)

Re-publish by Jacob Paradox from link (www.routers.com),(www.iht.com), (www.routers.com), (www.nytimes.com)