Sustainability and Environment
Political Conflict Looms as Major Powers Seek to Defy EU-ETS

Even as the EU-ETS officially takes effect for air transport, it remains under fire politically and legally from almost every direction. The U.S., China, India, Russia and numerous other states have all made high-level protests against the cap-and-trade system–in some cases backing these up with thinly veiled threats of economic sanctions against the European Union, if it refuses to back down in its insistence on imposing ETS on operators from outside Europe.

On December 21, the European Court of Justice confirmed a decision to deny an appeal made by Airlines for America (formerly the Air Transport Association) against the imposition of the European Union’s emissions trading scheme (ETS). The blocking of this legal avenue, which confirms an earlier provisional ruling in October by ECJ advocate general Juliane Kokott, is likely to stoke the fires of political opposition to ETS.