Chorus of Resistance

As the deadline for the start of the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme looms, the chorus of criticism is reaching a crescendo. Last month there were calls for the EU to withdraw plans to impose a unilateral ETS on non-EU airlines from the Arab Air Carriers Organization (AACO) at its annual meeting in Abu Dhabi.

“Unilateral and regional environmental initiatives, which ignore the boundaries of their jurisdiction, such as the European Emissions Trading Scheme, will not succeed in resolving the environmental issue,” AACO secretary general Abdul Wahab Teffaha said.

He reiterated that the matter should be addressed by ICAO.

To give Arab airlines more power to fight the EU ETS, AACO is calling on the Arab Civil Aviation Commission to form an Arab position regarding the “illegitimacy of applying the European Union scheme on non-EU airlines,” according to Teffaha.

The move by the AACO follows the US House of Representatives overwhelming vote on Monday, Nov. 7 for the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme Prohibition Act of 2011, which forbids US carriers from participating in the EU ETS. The bill also instructs US officials to negotiate or “take any action necessary” to ensure US aviation operators are not penalized by “any unilaterally imposed” EU scheme.

Teffaha stressed that Arab airlines support a global ETS if the revenues collected are used to improve the environmental footprint of aviation and not to fill “government coffers.”