E.U.’s emissions plan for airlines doesn’t fly

The July 11 editorial “The E.U.’s cleaner flight plan” rightly called for international agreement on a plan to reduce aviation greenhouse gas emissions. However, the European Union proposal runs counter to the idea of a global solution and ignores the fact that the United States and other countries have sovereignty over their own airspace.

Few industries have been as diligent about reducing greenhouse gas emissions as the U.S. airline industry. Since 1978, airlines have improved their fuel efficiency by 110 percent and emit only 2 percent of total man-made carbon dioxide. Yet European regulators are determined to impose what amounts to a multibillion-dollar environmental tax on airlines next year.

The Air Transport Association (ATA), which represents U.S. airlines, believes that the International Civil Aviation Organization is the appropriate group to establish global emissions targets and timelines. Instead of being forced to follow a patchwork of rules, airlines should be subject to a global climate-change accord. The ATA has a proposal on the table for just such an agreement.

Allowing Europe to impose its solution will not reduce greenhouse gas emissions. What it will do is take away from investments in new fuel-efficient aircraft and infrastructure while adding to an already high tax burden for our customers.

Nicholas E. Calio, Washington

The writer is president and chief executive officer of the Air Transport Association.