CLIMATE CHANGE/AIR TRANSPORT : CHINESE AIRLINES OPEN FIRE AGAINST ETS.

China will not cooperate with the EU on the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) - the European system on airlines' right to pollute - Chai Haibo, the secretary-general of the China Air Transport Association (CATA), told AFP. Yet all airlines - regardless of whether they are European or not - that operate on European soil are bound to comply with the new regulation since 1 January. "Nothing new," Isaac Valero Ladron, the European Commission's spokesperson commented. He added that the position of Chinese airlines was "well known". Nevertheless, Valero Ladron specified that "all the Chinese airlines operating in the EU acquired, on 30 September 2011, the required emission rights totalling 85% of quotas, which are allocated for free: this proves that the system works".

CATA (which comprises of most of the Chinese airlines, including the four biggest: Air China, China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and...