EU Airline Emissions Restrictions

Last August, the European Union (EU) voted to impose a law restricting carbon dioxide emissions from commercial airlines flying within, to and from Europe. The law went into effect on January 1 of this year and now, the United States government is trying to counteract the EU Airline Emission Restrictions, saying that the new laws are too costly for American air carriers to keep up with. The new EU law requires all air carriers on flights into and out of Europe to pay to offset their carbon emissions caused from transcontinental flights, adopting a carbon credit system that allows airlines to trade emissions produced for carbon credits...

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Garuda seeks to dodge EU carbon tax scheme

[The Jakarta Post]. Garuda seeks to dodge EU carbon tax scheme. National airline Garuda Indonesia said that they were not willing to pay the European Union’s emission trading scheme (ETS), which charges airlines for greenhouse gases produced by their jets flying to and from the EU, a senior official said. “We actually do not want to pay the ETS because the consequences would be that we would raise our ticket prices,” Garuda Indonesia finance director Elisa Lumbantoruan told The Jakarta Post on Sunday. It would be financially viable for Garuda, however, to pay such a tax next year, Elisa said. In addition, the airline’s vice president for...

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Climate change skepticism seeps into science classrooms

By Neela Banerjee, Washington Bureau Los Angeles Times. Reporting from Washington—Climate change skepticism seeps into science classrooms. A flash point has emerged in American science education that echoes the battle over evolution, as scientists and educators report mounting resistance to the study of man-made climate change in middle and high schools. Although scientific evidence increasingly shows that fossil fuel consumption has caused the climate to change rapidly, the issue has grown so politicized that skepticism of the broad scientific consensus has seeped into classrooms. Texas and Louisiana have introduced education standards...

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