China threatens counter-measures in EU emissions dispute

China said it would take counter-measures, including potentially impounding European aircraft, if the EU punishes Chinese airlines for not complying with a new cap-and-trade scheme to charge airlines for their carbon emissions, Reuters reported. Under Beijing’s directive, Chinese airlines refused to meet a March 31 deadline for submitting carbon emissions data and have asked the EU to delay the scheme for a year. Now they have been told by EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard that they have until the end of the week to submit the data or face enforcement action, potentially including fines or impounded aircraft. Airbus and other sources in the air industry say China is delaying plane orders worth up to US$14 billion from France’s Airbus (a subsidiary of EADS; EAD.Euronext, EAD.FSE, EAD.BMAD) over the conflict. India, Russia and the US all oppose the emissions scheme, which the EU says is necessary to fill a vacuum left by failure to deal with aviation emissions on a global level.