Three major US-based airlines sue UK over European Union’s aviation emissions trading plan

Three major airlines based in the United States as well as the Air Transport Association have sued the United Kingdom against its efforts to bring them under the  first-stage of implementation of the emissions trading plan of the  European Union (EU).

The lawsuit was officially filed in a London court against the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change.

The complaint has been filed by American Airlines, United Airlines and Continental Airlines as well as the Air Transport Association (ATA), the leading trade group for the United States-based airlines.

In the complaint filed in the London court, the three airlines and the Air Transport Association argued that the emissions trading rules of the European Union were in violation of a bilateral Air Transport Agreement reached between the United States and the European Union in April 2007 and also the Kyoto Protocol.

The new emissions trading system of the European Union caps the emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and requires polluters – including airlines – to buy offsets in order to continue operating within the European Union’s airspace.

Earlier in 2009, the United Kingdom had started letting its Environment Agency fine Britain-based airlines that do not adhere to the European Union’s emissions standards.

Beginning from 2012, carbon dioxide emissions from aviation will be capped at the average 2004/06 levels for all of the member-nations of the European Union. This capping is applicable to all flights flying into and out of airports in the EU’s member-countries.

In a study a published by a group of 6 associations that represent airlines based in Europe, it was found that carriers will have to spend over $60 billion between 2011 and 2022 in order to buy credits from fuel-efficient industries to meet their emissions quotas.

Airlines based in the United States argue that a flight between the United States and London takes place almost exclusively outside of the European Union’s airspace.

Reports say that the Air Transport Association (ATA) is of view that nearly all non-European Union countries are against what the ATA calls the European Union’s “unilateral approach” to emissions from the aviation industry.

According to legal experts, the lawsuit filed by American Airlines, United Airlines and Continental Airlines and the Air Transport Association is likely to be referred eventually by the London court to the European Court of Justice.

According to a report of the Unite Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, by 2020, developed nations must have to cut carbon emissions by 25%-40% from the 1990 levels in order to “stand a chance” of maintaining the global temperature within 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) of the “pre-industrial times.”

Without restrictions on emissions, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned, temperatures will go up by as much as 6 degrees Celsius, resulting in a “massive climatic change.” A global warming of more than 2 degrees Celsius could lead to severe flooding and drought as also a faster rise in sea levels.

One study has found that jet aircraft, which account for 5% of emissions in the United Kingdom at present, could rise to 40% by 2050, depending upon the growth of the aviation industry.