BRUSSELS — The European Union risks a fresh confrontation with the U.S., China and big airlines when it issues a review Friday widely expected to extend carbon pricing to all international flights departing from the bloc.
Washington and Beijing have both threatened retaliation against any effort by the EU to hit airlines flying beyond the bloc with higher carbon costs under its Emissions Trading System — part of the European Commission’s effort to make the EU climate neutral by 2050.
Peter Liese, the European People’s Party’s environment lead in the European Parliament, said he had seen a draft Commission proposal that would extend the ETS to all departing flights, including those “to Washington, to China, to Latin America.”
“This will create a storm,” he said on Wednesday.
