Europe strong arms U.S. airlines into carbon trading

U.S. airlines have vowed to fight the European Union’s decision to make airlines part of its carbon trading program.

But the EU seems intent on moving forward with the plan to force airlines into taking responsibility for their emissions. On Feb. 11, the EU Commission released a list of thousands of airlines, including all the biggest U.S. fleets.

The EU’s carbon trading program, which is the largest such scheme on earth, should be praised for taking on an industry that would just assume fly above the radar.

Under the EU’s Emission Trading Scheme, each airline with service to Europe will be partnered with an EU member country. That country is responsible for overseeing the carbon trading rules, and will likely profit from selling credits to the airlines.

England will administer the program for many of the biggest U.S. airlines, including American, Delta and United. Even global companies with private fleets are listed, such as Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. NASA is also on the list, although it’s unclear if carbon emitted outside the earth’s atmosphere will be included.

As should be expected, the Air Transportation Association of America has vowed to fight EU controls. ATA President James May called the legislation an illegal attempt to grab tax profits.

In the ATA’s latest annual report, May points out airlines have improved fuel efficiency 110 percent from 1978 to 2007.

But ATA airlines would have been foolish not to take advantage of new technology in the last 30 years. While the efficient use of fuel is always good, May fails to address the global emissions crisis. Like every other industry that pollutes the air, global airlines should be mandated to control emissions.

Instead of taking on the EU, several European-based airlines are promoting their own climate control rules. The Aviation Global Deal Group is hoping the United Nation goes for international CO2 standards.

This group, which includes British Air and Virgin Atlantic, is right that every airline should take responsibility for its own emissions – not just airlines coming and going from Europe. Plus, EU countries shouldn’t benefit finically when international companies lower emissions.

Hopefully, all this discussion will put pressure on Obama and other world leaders when they try to figure out how to replace the Kyoto Protocols in December.