EU adamant on aviation emissions
Development and Environment Editor
THERE was & no way& the European Union (EU) would budge on its decision to include aviation in its Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) from next month, European climate action commissioner Connie Hedegaard said yesterday.
A new negotiating text for the United Nations climate-change talks in Durban, released yesterday, proposes that developed countries be banned from & resorting& to any unilateral measures against goods and services from developing countries, even to protect or stabilise the climate or emissions & leakage& If this proposal were accepted it could deal a blow to the EU's inclusion of aviation because the scheme puts a price on airline greenhouse gas emissions, for which & carbon& has become the catchword.
Although Ms Hedegaard did not mention the new negotiating text, she said at a media briefing in Durban: & There is no way the EU will change legislation (already in place).& She also berated the US Congress for passing a bill forbidding the country's airlines from participating in the ETS aviation scheme, calling the move & arrogant and ignorant& Aviation accounts for 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Other regions are also proposing carbon taxes on the air transport sector. The International Air Transport Association is opposing the ETS. The association has set itself a target of improving emissions efficiency by 1,5% annually to 2020, and then to halt net emissions growth to 2020 and reduce emissions by 50% of 2005 levels by 2050.
The EU's & unilateral& imposition of a & carbon tax& on aviation was & disguised trade action taken in the name of the climate& Indian Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said on Tuesday, a day before the text came out.
An open, barrier-free, rules-based trading system was & a crucial component of the supportive and open international economic system& according to the text, which is a discussion document.
Samantha Smith, leader of the World Wide Fund for Nature's global climate and energy initiative, said the proposal was & pretty broad& seeking to bar any unilateral trade measure that did not take into account the principle of & common but differentiated& responsibilities that acknowledges developing nations have a way to go to catch up with developed nations in terms of socioeconomic development. It was important to SA as the country's exports had far to travel to reach developed markets, she said.
The EU is SA's largest trade partner. More than 90% of SA's trade is shipped, and the International Maritime Organisation's proposal to impose bunker fuel taxes on shipping has not met with as much opposition from shipping companies as the EU & aviation tax& decision.
Department of Trade and Industry chief trade negotiator Xavier Carrim said it was important to balance & climate-change efforts& with the promotion of development through trade.
The country wanted to open a discussion within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that would & explore the linkages between trade and the environment and strike a balance& between them, Mr Carrim said.
Ms Smith said a clause in the new text that recognised the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as & the competent body for multilateral trade rule-making& was an attempt to bring rule-making into the convention negotiations. This was because while the WTO process did not preclude discussions on this aspect, it did not make express space for it.
Aviation accounts for 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions
Connie Hedegaard
Xavier Carrim
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