China Rejects Europe’s Airplane Carbon Emissions Scheme

The Chinese government has ordered the country’s airlines not to pay the European Union’s carbon emissions fee which went into effect at the beginning of this year and applies to any airline that flies into or out of an airport in one of the EU’s 27 countries. Standard & Poor’s has estimated the cost to the airlines in 2012 of about €1.125 billion.

US airlines have added yet another fee that passengers must pay for flights to Europe. China, which has long opposed any carbon emissions trading scheme on the grounds that such schemes work to the country’s disadvantage, does leave the door open to the new EU fee by allowing its airlines to apply for special approval.

This course allows the government to have its cake and eat it too. On one hand, the government won’t acknowledge the legitimacy of the fee. On the other, to ensure that Chinese airlines can compete for flights to Europe, the government will grant exceptions.