International Online Report (reporter Yan Xi): On the 21st, representatives from the civil aviation industry of 32 countries including Russia, China, the United States, and India held a meeting in Moscow to jointly discuss countermeasures regarding the EU's imposition of an aviation carbon tax. Levitin, the Minister of Transport of Russia, expressed at the conference on the same day that Russia supports the actions of China and the US in prohibiting their domestic civil aviation enterprises from participating in the EU’s aviation carbon emission trading system. He believes that it is too early for the EU to impose an international aviation carbon tax.
On December 21 last year, the European Commission announced that it would start imposing an international aviation carbon tax from January 1, 2012. According to the regulations, the carbon emissions of all international flights taking off and landing at airports within the EU region will be restricted, regardless of whether they are transiting or not. The portion exceeding the standard must be purchased by the airlines within the EU aviation carbon emission trading system.
In response to this, Levitin stated on the 21st of this month that the collection of international carbon taxes as well as market measures in other environmental protection fields should only be implemented after relevant countries reach a consensus under the framework of the International Civil Aviation Organization. Levitin pointed out that the distribution mechanism of income generated from selling carbon emissions is still not transparent enough. He indicated that the unilateral collection of this new tax by the EU will increase the cost of airlines, and part of the increased cost will be passed on to passengers, triggering a wave of air ticket price increases. The rise in air ticket prices will reduce market demand, leading to a vicious cycle. Levitin also expressed that under circumstances where relevant countries have not reached a consensus, non-EU member country airlines should avoid complying with this new regulation.
In fact, before this conference was convened, the Russian side had already repeatedly expressed its dissatisfaction with the EU's imposition of an international aviation carbon tax. In Russia's international flights, more than 70% of the flights are destined for EU countries. Once the EU implements this regulation, Russian aviation enterprises will have to pay an additional $20 million to $25 million each year. Russian Prime Minister Putin publicly criticized at the end of last year that the EU's related policies were essentially protecting EU aviation enterprises. Demidov, Deputy Director of the Department of Civil Aviation Policy of the Ministry of Transport of Russia, believed that the EU's collection of carbon taxes was actually imposing the EU's internal policies on other regions' civil aviation enterprises. Many contents in the regulations are extremely unreasonable, such as taxing flights overflying the EU airspace based on the entire route distance.
Russian media analysis suggests that possible countermeasures that various countries might take against the EU's forced collection of aviation carbon taxes include: prohibiting domestic civil aviation enterprises from paying the EU aviation carbon tax; imposing an aviation carbon tax on EU member country airlines equally; increasing the overflight fees for EU airlines flying over other countries' airspace, etc.
The Russian media pointed out that both China and the United States have clearly expressed their prohibition of domestic civil aviation enterprises participating in the EU's aviation carbon emission trading system, and Russia is also studying and formulating similar regulations. In addition, Russia once promised to the EU that starting from January 2012, it would not charge overflight fees for the newly added routes through Siberia by the EU, and starting from 2014, it would exempt all EU routes through Siberia from overflight fees. However, there are reports indicating that Russia has not yet signed a new aviation transport agreement with the EU, and in January this year, the Russian side also conveyed to the EU the intention to continue charging overflight fees. External observers believe that this could be one of the countermeasures taken by Russia against the EU's collection of international carbon taxes.
There are also reports suggesting that due to strong resistance from all sides, the EU has not yet officially levied this tax item. Even if it is implemented, it may not be until the end of this year or the beginning of next year. This is actually giving the international community time to resolve disputes through negotiations.