EU carbon tax will cost Emirates $1bn over ten years

Dubai: Joining a rising tide of chorus against a European Union proposal to tax the aviation sector under its emissions trading scheme, Dubai flag carrier, Emirates, has said the EU's carbon emission scheme may cost it as much as $1 billion over 10 years.

From January next year, airlines flying to or from Europe will have to buy permits from the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS) for 15 per cent of the carbon emissions produced during the entire flight.

"It (the scheme) will have a very significant impact on Emirates," Andrew Parker, Emirates' senior vice president for industry and environmental affairs, said at a conference in Dubai.

"It's safe to assume somewhere around $500 million to $1 billion range over the first decade of the scheme is likely," he said, when asked about how much ETS would cost the airline.

The problem for Emirates, according to Parker, is that a quarter of Emirates' global operations are Europe-based.

So far the European Union has said it will be steadfast in implementing the scheme even as a rising tide of protest from airlines and countries begins to envelope it.