China plays hard ball on EU tax
BEIJING, 20 May 2013: China will not pay allow its airlines to pay CO2 emissions on flights within Europe, a top civil aviation official reportedly said after the European Commission warned eight Chinese firms face fines for non-payment.
The world’s second largest economy “will not accept any unilateral and compulsory market measures”, Yan Mingchi, deputy director-general of the legal and regulation department at the Civil Aviation Administration of China, told an aviation forum in Beijing Friday, the China Daily newspaper reported.
He said “airlines in developing countries should be provided with financial and technological support in their efforts at coping with the effects of climate change”.
Airlines pocket carbon tax
BRUSSELS, 23 January 2013: Airlines made up to half a billion euros in windfall profits last year by passing on a carbon surcharge to travellers despite an EU decision to freeze its controversial carbon tax, environmentalists said on Tuesday.
Green group Transport and Environment said airlines chalked up extra revenues estimated at 486 million euros (US$650 million) even though EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard in November decided to “stop the clock” on an EU carbon tax angering the global aviation industry.
She offered to freeze the measure for a year on flights to and from non-European nations amid hopes of negotiating a global CO2 emissions in the framework of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
EU freezes carbon tax
BRUSSELS, 13 November 2012: The European Union caved in to critics of its contested carbon tax on air travel Monday, offering to “stop the clock” and freeze the measure for a year on flights to and from non-European nations.
The EU’s climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said at a hastily arranged news conference that she had just recommended in a phone conversation with the 27 EU nations that the tax be suspended in the interests of negotiating a global CO2 deal.
“Finally we have a chance to get an international regulation on emissions from aviation,” Hedegaard said, referring to progress on the matter at a Friday meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in Montreal.
IATA celebrates carbon tax freeze
GENEVA, 13 November 2012: The International Air Transport Association (IATA) was quick to celebrate an EU announcement Monday offering to suspend a controversial carbon tax on air travel for flights to and from non-European nations.
The announcement by EU climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard that she had recommended that the EU “stop the clock” for a year on the EU’s emissions trading system (ETS) “represents a significant step in the right direction and creates an opportunity for the international community,” IATA chief Tony Tyler said in a statement.
Brussels imposed the tax 1 January claiming it would reduce carbon emissions blamed for climate change, but airlines allege it will cost 17.5 billion euros (US$21.2 billion) over eight years.
US challenges EU on tax
WASHINGTON, 31 July 2012: The United States will this week host a meeting of some 16 nations opposed to a controversial EU carbon tax on airlines, aiming to draw up an alternative plan, a US official said Monday.
“All of the countries who are part of this meeting… are opposed to the EU’s application of its emissions trading scheme (ETS) to foreign carriers,” a senior administration official said.
The carbon tax imposed on airlines by the European Union took effect on 1 January, but carriers will begin receiving bills only in 2013 after this year’s carbon emissions have been assessed.
Australia introduces carbon tax
July 2, 2012 by AFP
Filed under Environment, Government, News, Pacific
SYDNEY, 2 July 2012: Australia on Sunday introduced a controversial carbon tax in a bid to tackle climate change, with Prime Minister Julia Gillard hailing the move amid opposition warnings it will stifle industry.
The tax on corporate pollution, which drew thousands of protesters on to the streets of Sydney on Sunday, will mean some 350 entities will be liable to pay A$23 (US$23.5) for every tonne of carbon emissions they produce.
It comes into effect on the same day as an equally contentious levy on mining profits, the hard-fought Minerals Resource Rent Tax on iron ore and coal, which helped topple former prime minister Kevin Rudd.
IATA warns of carbon trade war
Beijing, 13 June 2012: The head of airline industry group IATA on Tuesday urged the European Union to postpone its controversial carbon tax scheme, amid warnings it could spark a trade war that would penalise Europe.
The scheme — under which airlines flying to, from or in the EU must pay a tax if they exceed their carbon allowance — has caused a major outcry among carriers, which say they are already struggling due to global economic woes.
Already, EU authorities have had to push back a deadline for airlines to comply to mid-June after Chinese and Indian carriers refused to cooperate with the scheme, which came into effect on 1 January.
Lousy carbon tax should go
WASHINGTON, 7 June 2012: US Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood on Wednesday called on the European Union to abandon its controversial carbon tax on airlines, saying the policy aimed at combating global warming was “lousy.”
“We think this is a lousy policy, a lousy law that they passed,” LaHood told a Senate committee on commerce and transportation.
“We strongly urge the EU to cease application” of the law “in order to help accelerate our effort to forge a global solution,” he said.
Tit for Tat threat on carbon tax row
NEW DELHI, 28 May 2012: India said it may stop European carriers from flying into the country if the European Union bans airlines from the South Asian nation that boycott the EU’s new emissions fee system.
“We will take retaliatory actions to counter steps taken by the EU. If Europe bans our carriers we will ban theirs as well,” a senior government official, who did not want to be named, told reporters late Friday.
The EU in mid-May gave India and China a month to comply with the airline carbon emissions fee system across the 27-nation bloc, or face penalties for flights into and out of Europe.
EU hands out carbon deadline
BRUSSELS, 16 May 2012: The European Union on Tuesday gave China and India a month to comply with a new airline carbon emissions fee coming into effect across the bloc, or face penalties for flights in and out of Europe.
EU Commissioner for Climate Change Connie Hedegaard said all EU airlines and “nearly all” world airlines had agreed to hand over emissions data required under a controversial carbon levy on air travel that took effect 1 January.
“There has been a very, very high level of compliance … the only exception is Chinese and Indian carriers,” she said at a news conference.
