May 20--NEW DELHI -- India will toughen its stand against a potential European Union (EU) move to penalize airlines based in the country for not submitting emissions data, according to two government officials familiar with the matter.
The European Commission said on Friday two Indian and eight Chinese airlines face fines totalling €2.4 million ($3.1 million) for not paying for their greenhouse gas emissions on flights within the bloc.
The development was first reported in The New York Times on Thursday. Air India Ltd and Jet Airways (India) Ltd, the only two airlines to fly to Europe, were named in the report.
China will not pay for carbon dioxide emissions by its airlines on flights within Europe, a civil aviation official said after the European Commission warned eight Chinese firms face fines for nonpayment, AFP reported.
The country "will not accept any unilateral and compulsory market measures", Yan Mingchi, deputy director general of the legal and regulation department at the Civil Aviation Administration of China, told an aviation forum in Beijing Friday, AFP said in a report sourced from the China Daily newspaper.
India has about 80 flights a week to the EU, while EU airlines have 190 flights every week to India, which could be impacted if India and the EU get into an uneasy situation on the issue, said one of the government officials. Both declined to be named.
"It will only cause India to retaliate. That has been decided by the committee of secretaries as an approved step. It can also affect over-flights (on Indian airspace that go to the EU). When the matter is pending for discussion in Icao (International Civil Aviation Organization), this will be a provocative step. The EU has been made aware of all these steps both directly in meetings with and also in Icao. When the EU itself has put the ETS (emission-trading scheme) on hold, how can it logically even suggest such a step? This undermines Icao and UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on climate change) efforts," the official said. India "will coordinate this with China" if matters worsen, the official added. India has led the opposition to the move with support from more than two dozen countries, including the US and China.
Europe is trying to force the issue, said Prodipto Ghosh, a distinguished fellow at The Energy and Resources Institute think tank and a former secretary in the environment ministry. "Europe is claiming a right to impose environmental standards on the rest of the world. They will try to block an agreement even at Icao and will not allow an agreement unless its on their terms," Ghosh said. "The reason why this issue is deadlocked because the Europeans want it their way."
India had asked its airlines not to submit any data to the EU for the ETS, Mint first reported on 18 December 2011.
"I am directed to say that the ministry has decided that there is no need for Indian carriers to submit any data to European Union under EU-ETS," the aviation ministry said in a letter to all domestic airlines that flew on international routes on 25 November 2011. "Any correspondence received at your end (airlines) from the EU in this regard may be forwarded to this ministry for taking necessary action."
This action by the EU falls under unilateral action, an environment ministry official said. "We have been opposing it and will continue to do so," said the official, one of the two cited earlier.
The official said that a high-level group was set up to work on issues surrounding the controversial EU-ETS after the scheme was postponed for a year in 2012.
Officials from 17 countries are a part of this group, representing all geographical regions of the world. It also includes all the major aviation nations. The group will provide recommendations to the Icao council and submit a draft resolution to the next Icao assembly in September 2013.
Under the planned ETS, airlines using EU airspace will have to pay a fee for carbon emissions that exceed a certain limit.
The data is critical for working out how much an airline needs to pay. Indian carriers that fly to Europe -- Air India and Jet Airways -- may have to pay more than Rs.300 crore in the first year alone if the new tax is enforced, according to estimates by the aviation ministry, Mint reported on 18 December 2011
An email to an EU spokesman seeking comment on whether it has sent any fine notices to the Indian airlines did not elicit any response. Air India and Jet did not reply to emails seeking comments on the matter.
A spokesman for India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation said no communication had been received from the EU as of Sunday on the matter.
"It is totally unexpected," Arun Mishra, director general of civil aviation, said on Thursday. "They (EU) have agreed to suspend the emissions trading scheme and they have been working with all Icao stakeholders to evolve a global market based framework."
AFP contributed to this story.
Copyright 2013 - Mint, New Delhi
