AACO: Unilteral application of EU ETS 'violates the essence of the Chicago convention'

Arab Air Carrier's Organisation (AACO) stated (03-Aapr-2012) unilateral application of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is "violating the essence of the Chicago convention". It continued, "The fact that the ETS holds airlines of the world responsible for their emissions before the European authorities, contradicts with the principles of sovereignty of states over their national aerospace, and that national institutions of states are responsible before its own authorities and not the authorities of other countries". AACO added that the "EU's attempts to impose its own policies on other states will only lead to conflicts and trade wars which will not help the environment, the customer nor will it help the airlines. On the contrary, these attempts will negatively impact those stakeholders thus negatively impacting as well the global economic activity". AACO stated it supports taking global measures agreed upon within ICAO. Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker said the EU ETS was "one of the most controversial subjects facing the global aviation industry today". "There has to be a systematic approach to the implementation of any such scheme and, like many airlines around the world, we feel the European Union needed to take a step-by-step consultative approach before imposing programmes and penalising an aviation industry that plays a crucial role in driving economies," he said. [more - original PR - AACO] [more - original PR - Qatar Airways]