The European Union's decision to suspend a carbon taxation plan for all airlines flying to and from the EU represents a "positive" step and "rational" return toward a multilateral negotiation framework, China's air transport association said Tuesday.
On Monday, the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, announced it would postpone the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), which would require airlines to surrender a carbon emission tax for flights to and from Europe, until after next autumn's General Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
"The EU's decision to defer the plan to charge a carbon tax on airlines shows the EU has decided to return from a unilateral policy to a multilateral negotiation framework and wait for ICAO to come up with a solution acceptable to all countries involved," Chai Haibo, deputy secretary-general of the China Air Transport Association (CATA), told the Global Times Tuesday.
Due to some countries' dislike of the scheme, certain nations are seeking ICAO involvement and may pursue a Market Based Mechanism (MBM), the EU's climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in a statement e-mailed to the Global Times by the EU Delegation to China. An MBM would assign countries carbon quotas, which they could then buy and sell with other countries.
"Let me be very clear: If this exercise does not deliver - and I hope it does - then needless to say we are back to where we are today with the EU ETS. Automatically," Hedegaard said.
She also called on all parties to engage with each other urgently to take advantage of the window of opportunity that the EU was offering.
"By suspending the carbon tax plan, the EU is bowing to international pressure and finding a graceful way to avoid losing face in front of other countries," Zhao Yongsheng, a visiting scholar with the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times.
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