This is idiotic. The EU carbon trading cabal has decided to extort the rest of the air travel world starting in 2012. In a nutshell, they’ll ban flights from landing if the airlines don’t engage in carbon trading. It’s yet another variation of the “Plane Stupid” theme.
Benny Peiser of the GWPF alerts us to the translation of the article in the German magazine Handelsblatt
By Thomas Ludwig
Foreign airlines are threatened with a flight and landing ban from 2012 in the European Union if they do not participate in emissions trading.
The ban is proposed in an internal document by the EU Commission seen by Handelsblatt. Summarised on nine pages, the guidelines describe how such a ban could be implement. The Commission considers a flight and landing ban as a last resort to make the airlines surrender over its Emissions Trading Scheme.
An EU Directive stipulates that airlines from Europe and third countries are mandated to be included in the trading of emissions rights. On their flights to and from Europe, they may then only emit as much CO2 as the CO2 certificates they hold. 85 percent of the certificates are free of charge while 15 percent of the allowances have to bought via auctions.
“The whole project has not been thought through. The EU cannot impose its law on third countries,” Holger Krahmer, environmental spokesman for the German Liberal Party in the EU Parliament told Handelsblatt.
In fact, international resistance against the EU plan is growing. Several American, Asian and African airlines are suing the EU over its emissions trade project. The US Aviation Association ATA is attempting to have the policy suspended by the European Court of Justice. And the Russian government has also voiced its displeasure in Brussels.
Not even critics of the project believe that the European Commission will actually ban flights by American and other foreign airlines. “They will use it as leverage, and accept compensation measures,” estimates Liberal MEP Holger Krahmer. The EU Commission is looking for a face-saving way out: “What remains are the costs of CO2 allowances, which will only burden European airlines and make them uncompetitive” Airlines such as Lufthansa and Air Berlin had already warned of this danger in the legislative process.
“The EU has once again overestimated itself,” said Krahmer. “The project was not thought through. The EU cannot impose its legal authority on third countries.”
At the end of September, the general assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) will take place. Some countries, such as the U.S. want to adopt a resolution, which will make clear that emissions trading systems may only be applied by mutual agreement.
“Greenhouse gas emissions have increased dramatically, particularly in air traffic,” said Social Democrat MEP Matthias Groote. The climate expert warns against granting exemptions to noncompliant airlines from third countries. “If the U.S. and other countries try to suspend the EU emissions trading regime for third countries, it would lead to a huge distortion of competition for European airspace.” It is more important than ever to integrate international aviation into the EU’s emissions trading system. After all, the emissions of greenhouse gases in air traffic have doubled in the past two decades.
The EU Directive, which includes aviation in emissions trading, is part of a package of regulations with which the EU wants to meet its climate protection goals. Emissions of greenhouse gases should fall by a fifth by 2020 under the 1990 level […]
The inclusion of aviation in the Emissions Trading Scheme will impact consumers too. According to calculations by the EU Commission, a ticket for a return flight within the EU could become more expensive by up to nine Euros because of emissions trading. For long-haul flights, larger price increases can be expected, a return ticket to New York could be up to 40 Euros more expensive. [translation by Philipp Mueller]
Full story here: Handelsblatt, 22 September 2010
h/t to Benny Peiser http://www.thegwpf.org
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This is no different than the US complaining about countries who don’t have CO2 taxes on their goods and saying they’ll put compensating tariffs equal to what the CO2 taxes would have been if manufactured in the US.
This, and the EU crap are all anti-global trade efforts, which mean the anti-global crusaders who protest at every G8/G20/Gxx world meetings have won.
The UK is currently stopping millions from flying with flight taxes. This also effects small companies who must fly to meetings but guess what no effect on big business just part of the cost of doing business passed onto “customers’.
Yet another example of how they do things that just happen to have “unforeseen” consequences.
You used to be able to have a two week winter break for less than your rent. Pensioners spent the winter in warmer climes. Not any more. Who feels the pain, the poor.
Michael Larkin says:
September 27, 2010 at 9:37 pm
Go easy with the xenophobia and don’t confuse the EU with European peoples. Most European countries were recently denied referenda on the European constitution even where promised them. It is the political elites who have sold Europeans down the toilet.
Oh we had our referenda, but politics decided otherwise and threw the BIG NO spoken by the Dutch people into the garbage can.
It’s called Social Democracy.
It works on a simple principle. The people are stupid so the must be made to do what the politicos say. It never occurs to them that the politicos are people too.
@max Hugoson
How about the USA just cuts off 100% of the foreign aid money that mostly goes to waste instead of actually getting to people who need help?
Recently around 8,000 laptops were sent to Iraq to be given to students. After being held up in customs for a long time, they all vanished. Seems the containers were “mistakenly” mis-marked and the contents sold as “abandoned freight”. About half of the laptops were recovered but are still stuck in customs.
The USA spends more on AIDS and HIV research treatment than the rest of the world combined, yet what is the only country there are protests about “not spending enough”?
Cut it all off! Let the rest of the world fend for itself for a while and see how they like it. We need to take care of ourselves first for a while.
Perhaps a “modest suggestion” would help. We put a ‘landing tariff’ on all EU origin goods equal to any mandated “carbon costs” that is then rebated to American companies in exact proportion to any “carbon taxes or offsets” they must pay to the EU. The EU ought to be happy as the ‘carbon offsets’ will be purchased, and we would be happy as we didn’t have to do it with our money against our will; we would just use their money… but they want it bought, so, no problem! Right?…
Do they not understand that a lot of folks in the world are right now trying to decide to vacation in Paris or Rio? Rome or Fiji? Jack up the cost of one, and, well, it’s really cheap in Rio; and Carnival, well, what can I say…
Heck, I’m peeved enough at the bogus buckets of fees the Airlines are packing on now (and the ‘no food’ plans with 8 hours on two planes and not enough connecting time to grab a meal) that I’m planning my next trip to Florida via car as a convenience feature.
I can stretch when I want, eat and sleep when I want, don’t get ersatz protoscopy from Federal Agents, take all the bags I want, have GREAT meals – home cooked if I want, and have no risk of being stuck with a long weekend in an airport with seats designed to prevent sleeping… Oh, I can listen to my choice of news, sports, songs, etc. for free OR stop for an internet break any time I want. And I’ve always wanted to visit some parts of New Mexico and Arkansas that I’ve not made it to yet, so I can mix in some random “adventures” if I want. Frankly, just skipping all the standing in lines for “Your Papers Please!” (but without the please…) has a certain attraction to it. And did I mention the beer doesn’t cost $5 each and can be paid for in cash, if I want?…
And no, that’s not said without knowing what I’d be signing up to do. I commuted to Florida for about 6 months once. Drove it 6 ? times and flew another 6. The only advantage air had was speed and convenience. And now they have flushed convenience. Speed only matters if I don’t have time, and I’ve got time…
So Europe will find an ever larger number of folks going elsewhere, and airlines can’t jack the prices much without even more losses.
Besides, all the important places to go are in Asia now anyway.
Matthias Groote a ‘climate expert’…?
His CV:
Education and profession
1990 Graduation at the secondary school of Westrhauderfehn
1991 Freelancer in the editorial department of the Fehntjer Kurier
1991 – 1995 Vocational training as a mechanical engineer at the Deutsche Bahn AG in the reparation plant of Leverkusen-Opladen
1995 Occupation as a mechanical engineer in the field of plant construction
1995 – 1996 Community service at the German Red Cross
1996 – 1998 Advanced vocational training as a mechanical engineer – technical equipment and installation
1998 – 2005 Studies at the college of higher education in Wilhelmshaven, graduation as an industrial engineer
2001 – 2003 Additional qualification as a specialist for job safety at the college of higher education in Wilhelmshaven
2005 Occupation as a sales engineer
He’s been joined with/in the socialdemocrats [German] for most of his life and it just might be that his ‘climate expertise’ has been gathered during their evening lectures…
//TJ
E.M.Smith says:
Well, I’ve BEEN to Europe, didn’t enjoy it all that much, and have little desire to return. And this just cements it. Yeah, it would be interesting to visit Ireland where part of the family is from, but, well, not that interesting.
The whole place is just so old and crowded… 😉
===================================
Yeah I caught that wink.
But to say that is just in poor POOR taste.
I am American through and through [read my earlier post telling the EU to kiss my ___] but still, dude.
You can’t say that. All right, you can. But by doing so, you weaken your argument.
And argue all you like and take angry old man route….and you defeat your own purpose.
My reasoning stands: Don’t throw the proverbial baby out with the bathwater.
Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA
The Summer Olympics are scheduled for 2012 in London. This proposal might have some impact on World visitation.
The EU is the most corrupt political construct since the USSR, the captive nations within its claws are being stripped of their sovereignty and independence bit by bit. The EU has dark ambitions for a federal superstate run by a permanent political elite unhindered by the electorate who are being systematically disenfranchised and removed from the political process.
The EU needs money to finance its ambitions and the CT fraud is a prime area for extorting a constant revenue stream, its all about money and power with the aquisition of money to ensure the constancy of political power. The EU is based on a corrupt anti democratic ideology and it uses the corrupt methods of a dictatorship to achieve its ends.
We live in Europe under what you could call the ‘tyranny of the minority’ the political classes are creating a reality to suit themselves, the majority of people in the UK would dearly like to exit this ugly monstrosity yet the bought and paid for political class are determined to sell us into EU federal servitude.
The EU is determined to exploit the CT scam because it sees a way of funding its vile ambitions, it is the most morally corrupt construct since the USSR.
“Plane Stupid”??? More like “Plane Tabloid”!!!
The title to this post says: “Cancel all your European travel and vacation plans – carbon trading extortion is here”, and if you bother to read the post, you find: “The Commission considers a flight and landing ban as a last resort … ”
“Considers…”! “… Last resort”! Come on guys, you listen to any political group and you’ll hear extreme nonsense pumped out in the proposal phase! Do you think the Republicans are innocent of doing the same? I’ve heard worse proposals from US politicians in recent months! Get a grip, lets use our minds, not our emotions to make judgments. And can we please avoid tabloid headlines.
I for one hope they do it. Most of the carbo control measures implemented aren’t instantly visisble, while this one would be. There’s soon be line ups of cars waiting to get into Turkey or other neabry non EU states because they can hop a plane to their destination and still be ahead financially. Someone will do an aricle showing that airlines have adjusted their long haul routes so that they refuel in a low tax country a bit out of their way intead of refueling on the shortest stop over point due to higher taxes. Someone will eventually do a study and conclude that the work being done justy gets rerouted to save fuel in less regulted countrie, and start figuring out how many jobs have been lost to those carbon crunching heathens.
Perhaps it will then dawn on them that carbon restrictions will have the precise same effect across all industries, As serious textile tax fore example would be a real benefit to their world countries which have no such regulations and would be happy to staff up the production, replacing those high tech, high energy consumtion factories with low tech child slave labour,
What ever you try and regulate, some 3rd world dictator will figure out how to take advanatage if it, and frankly these types care not on iota about the consquences of their actions, Mugabe was all over the las climate conferene with his hand outstrecthed and dollar signs in his eyes. When it became clear that the promimsed money would not materialize Mugabe huffed of home where he continued to exprorpriate land from his citizens in order to give it to friends and family
This perhaps is the saddest thing about this whole mess. The money winds up in the hands of those who are dinky aware of what the whole farce is about, but if they can make a buck outsrouring that efficient high tech plant with a converted coal mine staffed with child slaves, they will
So the end result is jobs lost, increased pricing for everthing, and production transferred to inneficient economies where the carbon footprint dwarfs what we are going now and the facories, thought they seem to be operating with lot of short people, they are not running dwarfs into the ground until they collapse from exhaustion. Those are children paying the price for Europe pursing carbon control that is not practical.
If this risible nonsense happens then China will become one giant airport, and good on them too.
Further evidence that the EU economy is circling the drain.
I can just see the Obama administration licking their chops at another scheme to bleed the US citizens of more money.
“Over last 3 years our bills have grown about 30% and we face an additional 5% next month !! … and another 10% over next year !!”
Strange, that’s what my gas bills have done here in the UK, too. Must be all those turbines they have producing gas! Or maybe the price of natural gas is what’s driving this…
“This would lead to bans on EU planes landing elsewhere, thus further isolating Europe. EU members would bail from the union if they ever did something as stupid as this.”
Ah, so that’s the upside! Bring it on! Get us out of here!
The EU sure knows how to sink itself!
If the Europeans were serious about reducing CO2 emissions they would simply close all their airports and good riddance. The attractions of going there are not what they used to be.
I don’t quite understand whether the EU apparatchiks may force e.g. the Prague International Airport to endanger the lives of hundreds of people whose only sin is that they fly with an airline whose executive are sane and who have a spine.
Because most people and most politicians in Czechia surely think that such attempts to regulate carbon are insanity, I don’t believe that we will accept it. However, it may be more sensible to think about the possibility of shooting down all the aircrafts with people who participate in the carbon indulgence organized crime or who work for their interests in politics.
Excerpt from: savethesharks on September 27, 2010 at 8:30 pm
To which the Asians, Africans, and indigenous peoples of the Americas will all readily agree.
Although I thought that, going by the fossil record and the theory of evolution, Africa was the birthplace of all humanity. What happened, is Europe the motherland while Africa was just the surrogate-land?
While my mixed bag of ancestors do hail from distinctly European countries, like Ireland, I feel as much of an urgency to visit their homelands as they did to return to them. Several generations were born and raised in America, I was born and raised here. America is my homeland. I am a Native American. Now if only those darn census people would see it the same way…
The problem is this:
The European Union is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, a country split in two by language and culture, French and Flemish, two groups who usually refuse to speak the other’s language.
Into this has been poured the world’s largest gravy train of pointless politicians and bureaucrats.
These bureaucrats do not pay tax and typical of the bureaucratic ‘elite’ the world over, they have to create a reason for their existence. So every year, ever more stupid, expensive and pointless regulations are churned out to burden the countries of the European Union.
No thought is ever given to the economic consequences of these regulations.
The greenies and lefties love these types of regulations as: i) they have no clue about how economies really work, and ii) because it hits out at what they perceive to be the evil capitalists.
Thus it is an ideal environment in which bad science, such as AGW, to thrive.
We need more mad ideas in Europe like this one, the sooner this suicidal policy of attempting to shame the rest of the world on CO2 by wearing hairshirts is shown to be self destructive the better.
What a brilliant idea!
Under the cloak of Global Warming the EU imposes a tariff on Airlines from non Carbon countries. I doubt this will mean a tinkers damm to the Lufthansa’s and British Airways of this word…they are already stuck with EU carbon certs. But the AA’s, Uniteds, Cathay Pacifics are going to be forced to either cut down their services (giving more market share to EU approved airlines) or raise ticket prices (probably above EU-approved airlines because the existing airlines have had time to figure out how to game the system).
A prime example of how you can get away with something that would otherwise cause an international incident if you wrap it in the magic of “Global Warming/Climate Change”
I heard recently that a majority of economists in London now believe that the EU will likely fail and collapse into something very different at the present rate. Germany is quickly losing patience for footing the bill for the economically inept 75% of the Union as well. This certainly seems a way to further push them into putting the EU in its place vis a vis meddling with the economy. The European Union is broken and looking to rob whatever members or trade partners of them it can. A weak attempt at the lost dream of COP15, to finance Europe on carbon taxation.
May I live to see the UN follow the EU into that good night.
Now we remember why our ancestors left Europe.