Germany urges the ICAO to create emissions solution

A German politician yesterday urged the ICAO to provide a solution to the problem of aircraft emissions following concerns that Airbus could “suffer deeply” from retaliatory protests to the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS).

Peter Hintze, a deputy minister for economics and technology, is in charge of Germany’s aviation policy. He was reported to have raised concerns at the ILA Berlin airshow after meeting with fellow Airbus member-nations (France, Spain and the UK)

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The US, India and China are amongst countries that have refused to co-operate with the ETS, which would see all airlines that take off or land within the EU included in the ETS, which levies taxes on emissions from journeys, even if they occur outside EU airspace. Several nations have complained that this infringes on their sovereignty, in some cases barring their airlines from participating in it.

According to reports, China has forced some airlines to put Airbus aircraft orders on hold, posing a danger to the company’s production rates, sales and jobs.  Hintze said that a global solution to this problem should be pursued through the ICAO.

“This is one of the first times a transport minister has openly declared he has reservations about the timing [of the ETS],” Geert Sciot, general manager, communications, at the Association of European Airlines (AEA), told Air Transport World.

AEA has urged a global solution to the emissions issue rather than a regional European one that could distort competition, he added. The latter “would have a negative impact and our carriers risk retaliation from non-European countries”.