Via the GWPF, the great war of flying carbon credits appears to be massing on the border.
China has warned the European Union to abandon its controversial carbon tax on airlines or risk provoking a global trade war.
Adding weight to the warning, an industry insider told the Financial Times that the Chinese government was seriously considering measures to hit back at the EU if it insists on charging international airlines for their carbon emissions.
In a case initiated by US airlines, the European Court of Justice ruled on Wednesday that the EU’s carbon emissions trading scheme did not infringe on the sovereignty of other nations, and that it was compatible with international law. The change is set to go into effect from January 1.
Chinese airlines have also been preparing an legal challenge in Europe and they still plan to proceed with it, but Chai Haibo, deputy secretary general of the China Air Transport Association, conceded that the European ruling complicated matters as it means they will need to find an alternative reason to challenge the law.
Even if court action fails, Mr Chai was optimistic that concerted global pressure could yet persuade the EU to repeal its law. In the short term, he called on Brussels to delay implementation in light of the intense international outcry that it has provoked.
“Except for the EU, no countries support this,” he said.
He added that several Chinese government departments in Beijing were in the midst of researching possible counter-measures. Chinese airline officials have said before that they might refuse to pay the carbon tax, raising the prospect of a drawn-out legal fight.
The Chinese government has largely stayed on the sidelines of the spat, letting the airlines speak for themselves. In a sign that the industry dispute is escalating to a diplomatic concern, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman on Thursday called the EU plan “unilateral” and said it should be consulting other countries including China.
Xinhua, the state-owned news agency often used by the government to deliver blunter messages, was more direct.
“This is a trade barrier in the name of environmental protection, and it constitutes an attack on the interests of travellers and the international aviation industry,” it said in an editorial. “It will be difficult to avoid a trade war focused on a ‘carbon tax’ for airlines.”
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Believe India has also led the international airline outrage against this new EU attempt at wealth re-distribution.
http://www.livemint.com/2011/12/18224636/India-asks-its-airlines-not-to.html
Unfortunately it is not the rest of the world against the EU. In a recent ICAO declaration objecting to this tax in Montreal, Australia abstained from the vote.
And Climate Minister Combet has been particularly quiet on the issue despite the strong objections from the US and most other countries outside Europe.
I think Combet knows that if the EU cave in on this it has grave implications for the Australian Labor Government’s carbon tax. I would also like to know where QANTAS stand. They have just had a stoush with the government over union rolling stoppages when the CEO stood down the whole workforce so I do not think the Government would like another conflict with them.
I only hope the other airlines stick together and are backed by their respective governments on this one as the outcome is entirely unpredictable if the EU does not budge. But if the EU do cave in, it will not only make Combet’s carbon tax look all the more ridiculous but could also herald the end of the EU ETS.
I’ve said for years that the death of the CAGW enterprise would not be the triumph of science over science fiction, but the cold hard economic reality of any serious attempt to mitigate through CO2 emission restrictions.
On the one hand, I feel vindicated. On the other hand, saddened.
But in between my two hands is a head, shaking in disbelief with mouth wide open in silent shock.
China? Champion of free enterprise?
This CAGW stuff is more complicated that I thought. It causes cold snaps due to warming, droughts due to increased precipitation, increased flooding due to desertification, and communists to embrace free enterprise. There can be no other explanation, the science is settled.
Many of WUWT’s leaders will not be familiar with the term eurosclerosis, but it sums up the situation in the European Union today. This poorly thought out tax on international airlines is an example of this.
Esssentially eurosclerosis is the result of a very large and expensive bureaucratic ‘elite’ in Brussels dreaming up whatever rules, regulations and taxes they deem fit. No one is accountable for their actions, which usually completely ignore how the real world actually works.
Like ‘climate scientists’ who dream up unfounded scare stories to keep their comfortable jobs, the bureaucrats in Brussels dream up pointless and expensive rules and regulations in order to ‘justify’ their comfortable jobs.
Many left-leaning political parties in Europe have a philosophy of creating as much welfare dependency as possible, solely for the purposes of re-election. This factor, combined with the never-ending stream of idiotic directives and rules emanating from Brussels has almost bankrupted Europe, which not surprisingly has one of the lowest economic growth rates in the entire world.
Eurosclerosis is the hardening of economic arteries as a result of the inept actions of the bureaucratic and political ‘elite’. These carbon and airline taxes serve only to weaken the economies of Europe for no practical benefit whatsoever.
Perhaps the Chinese will be the ones to save Europe from its own self-inflicted economic lunacy. The threat of quickly selling a few hundred billion Euros of dodgy European government debt might do the trick.
Latitude, …by prescribing homeopathic remedies.
This makes me puke. I live in Japan on a *very* modest pension. Most of the rest of my family live in the UK. I visit rarely, much less than once per year, because the cost busts my budget.
My mother is 94 years old, very frail and ailing. I hope the stinking eurocrats responsible for this garbage are forced to choose between helping a family existential crisis and eating. Problem is, I don’t believe in miracles.
JDN2 says:
December 22, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Could be bad for AirBus if China decides to cancel orders in retaliation, and good for Boeing.
Looks like its already happening: China has just BLOCKED a multi-billion sale of Airbus airliners to a Hong Kong airline.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16305488
So Europe chooses THIS moment to wage economic war on the rest of the world together?! (What happened to the lessons of 1945??)
LarryD says:
December 22, 2011 at 2:07 pm
This feels strange, I’m rooting for mainland China vs Europe.
Hey Larry, I’m with you but this time applauding a Democrat. Never thought I would be rooting for Hillary Clinton but now I’m roaring “Go on Hillary, put the boot in!”.
Here’s a thought for WUWThatters to comment on. Why don’t the airlines just keep on flying. Simple as that. Don’t account for the emissions and don’t pay the tax, just keep on flying into the airports. What is the EU going to do? Seriously, what is it going to do?
The last thing that the EU wants is a trade war with China. Given China’s cheap labour they would win easily.
The obvious thing for the non-European airlines to do is carry on as normal and refuse to pay the tax.
Any attempt to enforce payment of the tax by the European authorities would lead to the sort of economic/political crisis which would make the events in the Eurozone of the past few months seem like a walk in the park.
Sometime soon, the lunacy of ‘climate change’ economics will have to come to an end; the sooner the better as far as I am concerned.
So for the benefit of us all, America, Canada, China etc. please tell the eurocrats exactly where to stuff their airline tax .
European ideals, or at least those expressed through its political and bureaucratic leadership are pathetic. How could they be otherwise, most members of this group have never had a real job, nor have most ever achieved anything practical. Unfortunately the losers in this idiotic game will be the ordinary people of Europe, those who still have drive and gumption now largely outnumbered by a mass enfeebled by the dependency culture assiduously cultivated by all European Union camp followers. This means no change will come until the whole lot collapses, an event that will finally force people to face up the realities brought about by their own indifference.
A trade war with China will certainly accelerate this process, after all China has no need of Europe, there is a world outside of the European bubble, one desperate for an improved standard of living, one they are fully entitled to. China can lead this explosion now that the old democracies of Europe (and perhaps the US) have decided on economic suicide. Frankly put, Europe has become an irrelevance, its misanthropic no growth message should be ignored, the way forward is to unleash the self interest that drives all economic effort. Onward humanity. Onward to better things than cooking over a dung fire or living in a mud hut. All people can enjoy a better life, they will achieve it if they have the chance.
Passengers? please.
Take a look at the big picture. Europe is one of the biggest importers of Chinese goods, this is an attempt to at import tax. Raise the price of Chinese goods and increase home manufacturing to ease the recession. Yea, lets see how thats going to work with major companies exporting to China from inside the EU, decision time for multi-nationals just how green are they?
They just can’t get any money into that Carbon Tax bank account…no matter what…..LOL
The USA has already challenged the EU ruling.
The EU was then upheld by the European Court of law??????????
What jurisdiction does the European Court of law have over WORLD affairs. How can they dictate to other countries without expecting a Backlash?
All I can say to the rest of the world is sorry, don’t bother coming to the EU countries, their Politicians are all going insane/senile.
Such is the madness of politicians, in the UK we now have several taxes on air tickets, all of them supposedly to “save the planet” by reducing “carbon emissions”. What this amounts to is in excuse to pile endless taxes on top of taxes on anyone needing to travel anywhere.
The EU carbon tax is about $20 per ticket, but this will rise to whatever they think they can get away with. The US has already threatened the EU with retaliatory action and now it looks like China will do the same.
Thanks to all those screaming watermelons and their “global warming” junk science, soon only the rich will be able to travel.
Not to worry, I’m sure the costs will be offset by this planning:
http://ec.europa.eu/energy/observatory/electricity/electricity_en.htm
“The Member States of the EU have agreed on an ambitious plan of building the biggest market of electricity, connecting more than 500 million consumers throughout the continent. The European Commission is fully committed to fostering this project.
A well functioning and competitive market is needed to satisfy the needs and expectations of the European citizens. It will in addition contribute to the policy response required to fight climate change and to secure our energy future.”
Couldn’t find a date for the racket described above 🙁
You ever see those boots they put on the car wheels of people who won’t pay their parking tickets? I don’t believe they literally have those for jumbo jets, but that’s what the EU would do — simply start impounding $100 million dollar aircraft until the offending airline paid up.
@ur momisugly Lord Beaverbrook: The bulk of imported goods arrives by ship or even by train (the Transsiberian). This crazy EU scheme targets passengers, following the “logic” that if the cost of air travel goes up passenger numbers will go down. These bureaucrats are hypocrits (as are the CAGW activists and “scientists”) who happily clock up extensive air mileage to meetings in exotic places, where they dream up new instruments to strangle their citizens. It is not funny nowadays to live within the EU. Saddest of all, the citizens over here seem all too ready to blame all misery on each other, following the horrible patterns of the past. Witness the howling in my country, Germany, when the Brits pulled out of some of the futile €uro rescue schemes.
It’s hard to say. Most of these people seem to believe you can increase the tax on something without affecting the consumption. They have no clue that increased taxes have an effect on consumption and they will genuinely be surprised when people change their behavior and the EU doesn’t collect the projected amount of taxes. They will then try to increase the taxes. After air travel becomes unaffordable for most people, they will add a subsidy. The idea that you tax something more when you want less of it is foreign to them.
On the other hand, you may be right. The same people will advocate increasing fuel taxes in order to decrease gasoline consumption. So they simultaneously believe increasing taxes on capital, income, retail sales, investment, etc., won’t affect people’s economic behavior, but taxes on carbon will.
Don’t believe me? Just consider the Obama economic program.
davidmhoffer says:
December 22, 2011 at 10:12 pm
“This CAGW stuff is more complicated that I thought. It causes cold snaps due to warming, droughts due to increased precipitation, increased flooding due to desertification, and communists to embrace free enterprise.”
Yes, you are right. The world is a confusing place now. Everything is sort of…opposite. Maybe we have all been transferred into a Salvador Dalian parallell universe, without noticing it?
The chance of meeting a rational person from India or China, rather than from the EU,US or UK is growing by the hour.
kwik says:
December 22, 2011 at 2:23 pm
Wayne Delbeke says:
December 22, 2011 at 2:16 pm
Norway is a member of the so called EU economic zone or something. That means that we accept all regulations from EU, but have no saying in EU. Funny situation, dont you think?
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But Norway has control of its boarders and does not have to share all its North Sea OIl with Europe.
Philip Peake says:
December 22, 2011 at 7:07 pm
@wayne – have you ever flown into Oslo? vs Paris, London, Frankfurt etc?
You could drop Oslo airport into any one of those, close your eyes, turn around three times and not find it again for a week.
////////////////////////////////////////////////
In the 80s/early90s Oslo use to have a lovely airport (Fornebu). It was about 10 minute taxi journey (taxi lane all the way and only 1 traffic light) from the centre of Oslo. It had about 7 or 8 departure gates all in one hall. You could leave the office 25 minutes before the flight was due to depart, catch a taxi check in and board the plane. Business travel was never easier. I lament the loss of that airport.
Some commentators give the impression that they think that this tax is limited to passenger travel. As far as I know it is not. It pertains to all air travel whatever its purpose, eg., trade, mail etc. It is definitely a tax on trade and it is easy to see why some countries are justly concerned by it.
As regards passenger air travel this is not the only green tax. It is yet one more tax on top of other green taxes and these taxes together make up a large percentage of the costs of shorthaul air travel. A family of 4 or 5 are now finding it very expensive to go on holiday. Crazy really since Greece and Spain which rely heavily on the tourist market will lose out and they are already in enough financial problems without their main form of trade revenue being further taxed out of existence. Do these EEC technocrats know what they are doing. Silly question, of course they don’t and that is why the EEC is in such a mess and why none of them seem to come up with any workable solution to the present fnancial crisis.
Darren Parker says:
December 22, 2011 at 2:24 pm
If only they’d free Tibet I’d actually like the Chinese
———-
I do, because they freed the Tibetan people from 1000 years of oppression and a pernicious ideology called lamaist buddhism. Perhaps you might like to look into it, and draw some parallels with the Gaia religion.
Major international carriers have decided to beat the rule by not landing. Instead they will issue parachutes to all passengers.
More Soylent Green;
I don’tY believe they literally have those for jumbo jets, but that’s what the EU would do — simply start impounding $100 million dollar aircraft until the offending airline paid up.>>>
Yeah, like that would work. Well, actually, in some cases it might. Let’s go through the reactions on a country by country basis.
United States, Barak Obama; Please give us our plane back. Pretty please?
Russia, Vladimir Putin; We just shut off the natural gas pipeline that supplies half of Europe. Let us know when you come to your senses.
North Korea, Kim/Generals; Give us our plane back or we will line up 5 million of our citizens and shoot them.
United Nations; Give us the plane back as required by international law under security council resolution 18,965 sections 3 through 10 or else we will shake our finger at you.
China; Give us the plane back or we’re calling in our loans.
Israel; We don’t know who stole that plane in the middle of the night and returned it to us, but we recognize that this is a breach of sovereignty and stand side by side with the free world doing everything we can to determine who could have pulled off such a blatant heist. We have some preliminary evidence to suggest that it was the same team that stole those three patrol frigates out of a harbour in France a number of years ago after we’d paid for them and France refused to deliver them. We will continue our investigation.
France; We surrender.
Canada; We don’t know who stole that plane in the middle of the night and returned it to us, but we thank them. No, our mutual defense agreement with Israel has nothing to do with it.
Iran; We’ve seized all the European embassies in Tehran along with their staff. Give us our plane back now. For the record, returning our plane does not set a precedent and we are under no obligation to return the American spy plane we have captured.
Saudi Arabia; Well, it was a year old, and I wanted a new one anyway.
Liberia; Uhm… well… itz not actually our plane, just our flag painted on it. No biggie.
United Arab Emirates; Well, it was a year old and I wanted a new one anyway.
Turkey; Give us our plane or we’ll join the EU.
Somalia; We have a plane? Where is it again?
India; That’s it. We’re signing a mutual defense pact with Israel.
Japan; As it is against the law in Japan for our army to be used as an army, we have decided to take no action of our own. It is not against the law however for us to have a mutual defense pact with another country. As it is not our interest to become involved in middle east politics, we have declined Israel’s offer in that regard. We have elected to instead pursue a mutual defense pact with Canada who has agreed to draw on resources at their disposal to assist us. The operation faces a slight delay while we find air traffic controllers who speak Yiddish.