World Aviation could be spared inclusion in the EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS), the European Commission’s director general for climate, Jos Delbeke, said if the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) agrees to a global emissions-reduction scheme, reports the European Voice.

Mr Delbeke comments came a day after the Chinese government announced that it had instructed Chinese airlines not to participate in the ETS.

But Mr Delbeke said the EU would only agree if a new global ICAO scheme delivered more emissions reductions than the ETS, had targets and measures and would be non-discriminatory and apply to all airlines.

Legislation is currently working its way through the United States Congress that would also ban US airlines from participating, said the European Voice report.

“If no solution is found, these airlines could be banned from flying to the EU from April 2013 – when airlines must submit allowances for the emissions they have emitted since January 1,” said the report.

“Our legislators are ready to moderate the legislation based on the outcome of multilateral discussions at ICAO,” Mr Delbeke told a conference on aviation emissions sponsored by green transport group T&E. “We have a window of 12 months to find a solution.”

Delbeke stressed that the inclusion of aviation in the ETS is consistent with guidance adopted by ICAO in 2004, when the organisation said it would not develop a global scheme and countries should go ahead and include aviation in national cap-and-trade schemes. Since then, support for cap-and-trade has lost support globally, notably in the United States.

Speaking at the conference, Thomas White, deputy chief of the US Mission to the EU, said the US cannot accept a “tax” on its airlines, and that the inclusion of foreign airlines in the ETS amounts to a breach of sovereignty.

On this, Annie Petsonk, of the Environmental Defence Fund, said: “When I fly from Brussels back to the US I have to take off my shoes. That’s a US requirement. It’s quite usual in this field for departing states and arriving states to set conditions.”

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