EU body adopts strict rules for airline emissions - Reuters

Source: Reuters

EU body adopts strict rules for airline emissions
Tue Nov 13, 2007 12:07pm EST

By Jeff Mason

STRASBOURG, France (Reuters) - Airlines flying in
and out of the European Union should join the bloc's
emissions trading system in 2011 and submit to
strict caps on their output of greenhouse gases, the
European Parliament voted on Tuesday.

The EU assembly, in its first reading on a bill that
has drawn ire from the United States and other
nations, voted to set a tighter limit on aviation's
carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions than first proposed
by the European Commission.

It also set one date, 2011, for inclusion of internal
EU and intercontinental flights and increased the
number of carbon permits -- certificates that
essentially assign rights to pollute -- that airlines
would have to buy up front from EU governments
instead of getting them for free.

The trading scheme is the 27-nation EU's key
instrument to fight global warming. It sets limits
on the amount of CO2 that industry may emit.
Companies buy or sell permits based on whether
they overshoot or undershoot their targets.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSL1365000020071113