No punches thrown in aviation's emissions battle
Retaliation to the inclusion of aviation in the European ETS is all to come
By A.B.
THE EU's transport and climate-action bigwigs will not, I suspect, have been too concerned by the outcome of the meeting that finished in Moscow yesterday of 26 countries disaffected by the inclusion of aviation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
Eight potential retaliatory measures were outlined, including objecting (formally, you understand) to the UN, imposing levies on European airlines, ending talks with the EU on new routes and forbidding non-EU airlines to participate in the ETS, as China has already done. But it seems that the countries have not united behind a particular course. "Every state will choose the most effective and reliable measures which will help to cancel or postpone the implementation of the EU ETS," Valery Okulov, Russia's deputy transport minister Valery Okulo, was reported saying.
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