CATA to adjust EU ETS lawsuit strategy following CJEU ruling

The China Air Transport Assn. (CATA) is rethinking its lawsuit strategy against the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in the wake of this week’s Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) ruling.

Four Chinese carriers—Air China (CA), China Eastern Airlines, China Southern Airlines and Hainan Airlines—had planned to file a lawsuit against EU ETS with the support of CATA.

“We won’t change our clear-cut stance of opposing to EU ETS, although we have to adjust our lawsuit strategy owing to CJEU dismissal of Airlines for America’s argument,” CATA deputy DG Chai Haibo said, without giving details. 

But CATA did say that it would seek to ensure that including international aviation in the EU ETS would not infringe upon the principles of customary international law or the open skies agreement between the EU and the US.

Haibo said the Civil Aviation Administration of China and other Chinese government organizations are uniting to decide “how to confront with EU ETS or even take possible counter measures.” Local industry experts are calling on Beijing to put pressure on EU by reducing, or even canceling, Airbus aircraft orders.  

China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Weimin told reporters Thursday that China opposes EU’s action of unilaterally implementing ETS from Jan. 1. Liu said that China has made its position “quite clear” many times and also expressed concerns through bilateral channels to EU. “In fact, many countries are opposed to EU ETS. So we hope EU can take no risks and settle this issue with China properly with a positive and pragmatic attitude.”

IATA estimates the initial cost of the ETS in 2012 could be €900 million (1.2 billion), rising to €2.8 billion in 2020. According to CATA, EU ETS will cost Chinese carriers CNY800 million ($123.6 million) annually. CATA said costs would keep rising to CNY3 billion in 2020 as flights increase between China and Europe.