Shuttle diplomacy under way on global aviation emissions deal

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Here’s the rub – the EU wanted to introduce its emissions trading scheme (ETS) for aviation last September; which raised huge fears of a massive trade war between it, the US and China. So the commission put it into the abeyance folder in the hope that UN aviation body ICAO could develop a global agreement for this September. Fat chance of that – don’t those Brussels bods know that the UN works at a slower pace than continental drift? Trouble is, without an ICAO proposal EU law demands that its own ETS be enacted if ICAO failed to come up with the goods – and so the cloud of a trade war is once more on the horizon, prompting frenzied diplomatic activity in Washington and Brussels.