Ecologia, Medio Ambiente y Energias Renovables en la Naturaleza

"The council reiterated that ICAO was indeed the best global forum for tackling environmental issues linked to aviation, specifically climate change and carbon dioxide emissions. The European states expressed strong reservations on a number of elements in the declaration," Stephane Dubois, spokeswoman for the office of ICAO secretary-general, said by e-mail.

Governments and international airlines outside Europe such as the Air Transport Association of America, American Airlines, Inc., and United Continental Inc. have been consistently filing petitions with the E.U. court to block the E.U.'s expansion of its emission trading scheme beyond its 27-bloc border.

A final decision is expected later this year.

China's Civil Aviation Administration and Russia's Transport Ministry, on the other hand, while not taking the matter up to the E.U. court, warned last September that the European initiative may cause trade conflict.

Sharing the same point of view are international airline associations Airports Council International and International Air Transport Association.

"ICAO is the international authority in matters involving civil aviation and we believe it is correct to have them intervene and resolve this conflict before the scheme is implemented", said A.C.I. director-general Angela Gittens.

For his part, I.A.T.A. chief executive Tony Tyler said: "It's important to remember that opposition to this move is coming from states as much as from airline and airports. It's governments who see this as a clear infringement of their sovereignty and it's hard to see how something can be introduced when at least 26 states have come out publicly against it."

Also, the ICAO last September in New Delhi already sided with a group of non-E.U. nations' stand that the inclusion of international airline carriers in the European cap-and-trade is "inconsistent with applicable international law, unacceptable, and that there is a need to foster development of a full range of solutions that achieve performance, improvements rather than insist on imposing one nation's or region's particular solution on all other countries".

However, U.S. non-government organization Environmental Defense Fund said that while the ICAO decision is a positive one, it remains to be non-binding and the legal action to stop the E.U.'s plan is still held under the power of courts.

"The council's decision is one more skirmish in the airlines' continuing battle to evade pollution regulation. It is not a legal interpretation. It is quite clear that any decision taken by the council has no obligatory power," said Pamela Campos, a lawyer with the Environmental Defense Fund.

Also, despite the U.N. body's ruling, the E.U. maintained that it will still include flights to and from the region's airports in its emissions trading system as of January 2012.

"It is disappointing that ICAO discussions once again focus on what states should not do, instead of what they should do to curb growing aviation emissions. However, this decision will affect neither the EU's commitment to working within ICAO to agree on a global solution nor our adopted legislation to include aviation in the E.U.-E.T.S.," E.U. climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard said in statement Thursday.

"ICAO has missed again today the opportunity to tell the world when it will table a viable global solution," Ms. Hedegaard added.

The E.U.'s emission trading system, which serves as the region's framework to reduce greenhouse gases, imposes emissions limits on more than 11,000 manufacturers and power companies, leading to a cap in 2020 that will be 21 percent below 2005 discharges.

Provisions of the E.U.-E.T.S. regarding aviation include requiring any airline that lands or takes off in Europe to offset the greenhouse gases it emits during the flight by buying carbon allowances - which is 15 percent of the carbon emissions they generate - adding a cost of $2.66 to $15.96 per ticket over the coming decade.

Airlines failing to obey face fines of 100 euros per missing permit.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill last month prohibiting the country's airlines from participating in the E.U.-E.T.S. after the industry estimated that participation in the cap-and-trade system would cost U.S. airlines $3.1 billion between 2012 and 2020.

The bill has yet to pass the Senate and be signed into law by President Barack Obama.

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