EU Emissions Trading Scheme – An Update

The High Court in London has now formally referred to the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") a legal challenge on the lawfulness of the extension of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme ("EU ETS") to aviation.

As reported in the previous edition of this newsletter, the Air Transport Association of America ("ATA") and three of its airline members (American, Continental and United) filed an application for judicial review of the UK regulations that implement the EU ETS at the end of last year.

In May 2010, the National Airlines Council of Canada, IATA and a transatlantic coalition of environmental organisations were granted permission to intervene in the judicial review application. The parties have filed their written submissions prior to an oral hearing at the ECJ, which we expect to take place during the latter half of 2011.