Air Travel: India, China attack EU on carbon tax

NEW DELHI: India and China joined forces on Tuesday in saying they firmly rejected the EU’s “unilateral” decision to impose a carbon tax on air travel. The European Union (EU) imposed the tax with effect from January 1, but no airline will face a bill until 2013 after this year’s carbon emissions have been tallied. “We strongly oppose the EU’s unilateral trade measure in the name of climate change,” India’s environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan told reporters. “This decision by the EU will seriously jeopardise (our efforts to) tackle the international efforts to climate change,” said China’s top climate negotiator Xie Zhenhua.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 15^th, 2012.