New Delhi says an EU plan to impose a carbon levy on flights discriminates against Indian airlines
NEW DELHI (AlertNet) - The success of future climate change negotiations could be undermined by unilateral policies adopted by rich nations that work as restrictive trade barriers, Indian public officials and environmentalists are warning.
They complain unfair trade rules are being imposed, thinly veiled as climate protection initiatives.
“Of late, unilateral measures have appeared on the international scene that clearly constitute disguised restrictions on international trade,” Jayanthi Natarajan, India’s minister of state for environment and forestry, told a recent gathering in New Delhi.
Speaking at a workshop organised by the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Natarajan said developed nations are protective of their own domestic industries, while pushing emerging economies like India and China to take more action to cut their emissions.
“The impact of their actions on (their) domestic industry and particular sectors is sought to be protected at the cost of the global goals of stabilising the climate,” she said.
Natarajan - who is leading the Indian delegation at the Nov. 28-Dec. 9 U.N. climate summit in Durban, South Africa - said India will put three main issues on the agenda at the talks: trade actions, equal treatment of historical emissions and technology transfers.
India's biggest recent contention has been the proposed carbon tax on airlines entering the European Union (EU) from next January.
New Delhi has already objected that the levy could set back the international airline industry by $1.2 billion in 2012, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). It is expected to add Rs 2000 ($39), or around 5 percent per ticket, to the lucrative Delhi-London route.
EU AIRLINE LEVY UNFAIR?
Natarajan said the Indian government views the new tax as an extreme measure. “(It) is a clear pointer to the extent to which unilateral measures can be used to support the competitive agenda for sectors and trade gains,” she said.
Critics say the levy gives an undue advantage to airlines based within the EU. All operators of flights into and out of Europe will be required to account for every tonne of carbon emissions, and buy permits where they exceed a certain quota - effectively including flights from non-EU airlines in the bloc's emissions trading scheme.
India’s three large airlines - Air India, Jet Airways and Kingfisher – have faced difficult times in the past year, which they attribute to rising aviation fuel costs. Kingfisher recently pulled out of the budget travel sector due to mounting losses. And the EU tax is likely to worsen their financial woes.
“You have to hold up a mirror to what you are doing,” Natarajan said of restrictive trade actions.
She also criticised EU countries for not supporting efforts to look at historical emission levels rather than focusing on current emissions. “They hear, they chose not to listen,” she said.
Her call for recognition of historical emissions was echoed by several Indian environmentalists who also spoke at the seminar. “Developed countries will buy their way out (of commitments to global emissions levels),” said CSE deputy director general Chandra Bushan.
Other Indian public officials said they increasingly see obstacles in climate-related negotiations cropping up in trade negotiations. “Whenever you see environmental negotiations run into a wall, you will see trade negotiations have these same manifestations,” Rajeev Kher, additional secretary to the Union Ministry of Commerce, told the seminar.
When talks first began on the liberalisation of environmental goods in the early 2000s, the same issue was being discussed in at least seven international forums dealing with trade, he noted.
MARKET ACCESS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL GOODS
Aparna Sawheny, an economist at Jawaharlal Nehru University, observed that similar pressure is now being felt with regard to creating markets for renewable energy. “In 2010 and 2011, there is a push for renewable energy and climate-friendly goods,” she said.
But Kher observed that it remains difficult for emerging markets like India and China to use access to their economies as leverage in environmental negotiations.
“Developed countries want access to markets in developing countries but they (developing countries) are still not a cohesive group,” he said.
According to minister Natarajan, however, India is working to put up a collective front of developing nations and emerging market economies at Durban, and has been holding a dialogue with G77 nations, China, Brazil and the host nation, South Africa, ahead of the talks, she said.
“It is critical that developing nations seek and obtain unqualified adherence of developed countries to a second commitment period (for the Kyoto protocol),” she said, referring to one position India says is non-negotiable – its opposition to scrapping the Kyoto Protocol, the world’s main agreement on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The Indian minister also hinted that negotiations in Durban are likely to be tough, adding that it will not be party to any new legally binding treaty. “(Environmental negotiations) have acquired competitive and economic overtones,” the minister said, warning that progress in Durban will be slow if talks are “caught in a competitive vortex”.
Officials also warned that Durban is unlikely to result in significant levels of funding for climate change initiatives. “Contributions to a global fund will be low due to recession in the EU and the U.S.,” said R. R. Rashmin, joint secretary of the Ministry of Forestry and Environment.
Amantha Perera is a freelance writer based in Sri Lanka.
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