India Says EU Airline Tax Deal Breaker for Climate Talks

The European Union’s move to make airlines pay for their carbon emissions is a “deal breaker” for international climate negotiations, India’s environment minister said today.

“For me, it is a deal breaker,” Jayanthi Natarajan told a conference in New Delhi. “I strongly believe that as far as climate change discussions are concerned, this is unacceptable.”

As of Jan. 1, all airlines using airports in the trade bloc were obliged to enter the EU’s carbon trading program, according to the European Commission’s environment arm.

Natarajan called the move a “disguised” unilateral trade measure that was introduced in the name of climate change.

To contact the reporter on this story: Abhijit Roy Chowdhury in New Delhi at achowdhury11@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sam Nagarajan at samnagarajan@bloomberg.net; Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net