CHINA: Chinese airlines to shun EU carbon tax

Led by the US and China, 26 nations are now protesting the EU's airline carbon tax, and a outright Carbon Trade War Edges Nearer. An alliance of countries opposed to a carbon tax on airlines is threatening to tear up trade deals with the European Union and impose new taxes on EU carriers, in a sign the world’s first carbon trade war is edging closer.

The European Union will maintain its carbon tax imposed on airlines operating in its airspace, the Danish climate minister said, despite retaliatory trade measures by China.As long as an international policy on carbon emissions by airlines is not found, the "EU will stick to its own ETS system", Martin Lidegaard said on Friday. Denmark currently holds the EU's rotating presidency.The carbon tax imposed on airlines by the European Union came into effect on January 1, but carriers will begin receiving bills only in 2013 after this year's carbon emissions have been assessed.

China said it opposes a "unilateral" plan by the European Union to impose carbon emissions charges on all airlines in its airspace from January 1.The comments from China's foreign ministry came after the European Union's highest court threw out a bid by US and Canadian airlines to block the introduction of the scheme, also triggering an angry response from Washington."We oppose the unilateral legislation imposed by the EU," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said on Thursday, at a regular briefing.

Beijing’s ban on Chinese airlines complying with a European Union charge on carbon emissions, escalates a dispute that risks becoming a trade war

Chinese airlines will not pay European Union carbon emissions charges that came into force on January 1, a national aviation industry group said Thursday.The EU launched the Emissions Trading System (ETS) in 2005 in a bid to reduce carbon emissions of power stations and industrial plants, and extended the scheme to airlines from Sunday.The move means airlines have to buy pollution permits to fly in Europe under a cap-and-trade scheme that has angered the US and Chinese governments and airlines worldwide.

Climate change is real. Few doubt that now. Governments try to impose, rather weak, legislation to combat climate change such as imposing reductions in carbon emissions, but in truth nothing is changing. The Department of Energy reported that the largest increase in carbon emissions ever occurred in 2010, and according to the International Energy Agency the global temperature could reach a dangerous and irreversible level by 2017 if drastic, coordinated action is not taken to reduce greenhouse gases.

China on Wednesday criticised European Union plans to charge airlines for carbon emissions, accusing it of "unilaterally" introducing the new tax.Airlines, which contribute 3.0 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, will be included in the EU's carbon trading market on January 1.China has said it fears its aviation sector will have to pay an additional 800 million yuan (about $125 million) a year on flights originating or landing in Europe, and that the cost could be almost four times higher by 2020.