Steadfast Europe

In the future, airlines will be hit with financial sanctions for excessive carbon dioxide emissions. It’s only right that the European Union resist being blackmailed — by the United States, for example.

Equal rights for everyone: As of Jan. 1, 2012, every airline without exception offering flights taking off from or landing in Europe must be in possession of a carbon emissions certificate, as decided by the European Court of Justice.

This latest judgment binds the European Union to an important and rational goal: Henceforth, the world’s airline companies will be financially sanctioned for excessive greenhouse gas emissions. Those seeking to avoid this burden will have to replace aircraft engines with newer low-emission engines which use less kerosene.

From an environmental standpoint, this decision is long overdue considering that air traffic — and the environmental impact it causes — will increase over time. Nations like the United States, India and China appear to be unimpressed. They are attempting to spare their air carriers from the burdens imposed on European companies by claiming they will be disadvantaged from a competitive standpoint. This ignorant attitude is hardly surprising given what was just recently shown at the environmental conference in Durban, South Africa, where the U.S. mainly just stonewalled.

But opponents of environmental protection in the airline industry weren’t blindsided by the court’s decision. EU nations had already unanimously voted for such penalties as early as 2008. The U.S., meanwhile, demanded consensual global solutions to the problem, but nothing has happened since. This non-binding business is now thankfully over and done with, thanks to the European Court of Justice’s rejection of U.S. complaints about the certificates.

But the political squabbling probably won’t cease for some time. The U.S. is protesting the court’s decision with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton even threatening retaliation against European airlines. Russia and India are considering withdrawing permission to use their air space. But applicable law can’t be sidelined with such blackmail attempts.