Britain, France and Germany want to curtail further a European Union plan to regulate CO2 emissions from flights, setting up a clash with Brussels keen to maintain the bloc's climate policy which has sparked threats of a global trade war.
The EU's three biggest economies want to regulate emissions from domestic EU flights only, scaling back a Brussels proposal that would charge any airline for emissions made over European airspace, British and EU officials said Thursday.
That represents a climb-down from the EU's unified position in September, when the bloc entered negotiations at the U.N.'s aviation body ICAO aiming to craft a global agreement to curb the fast rising output of heat-trapping gases from aviation.
The nearly 190 nations at ICAO agreed to design a global scheme by 2016 that would not take effect until 2020 but rejected letting Europe apply its own plan to foreign carriers in the meantime.
Just weeks after the ICAO meeting, the European Commission revived its proposal, insisting Europe was within its rights to regulate aircraft emissions within its own airspace.
To be made law the proposal needs the support of both EU member states and the European Parliament, which appears to back it.
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