( Reuters ) - The International Civil Aviation Organisation has passed a resolution opposing a European Union plan to include foreign airlines in its emissions trading system, the UN body said on Friday.
"A resolution was adopted which said ... that emissions-trading schemes are fine, but they should not be applied to the aircraft of foreign countries without mutual consent," Jeffrey Shane, the undersecretary for policy in the US Department of Transportation told reporters in Montreal.
He said that during recent ICAO meetings, about 42 European governments took "a formal reservation" from that wording.
"They did not want a clause that said, 'ICAO urges states not to apply emissions trading to foreign aircraft without mutual consent'."
The ICAO is a United Nations body created in 1944 to promote the development of civil aviation around the world.
The United States has opposed the plan to include foreign airlines in the EU's emissions trading scheme and pushed the ICAO to let individual countries decide the best way to manage greenhouse gas emissions from their airlines. The EU Commission plans to include flights into and out of the 27-nation bloc from 2012 in its emissions trading scheme.
Environmentalists say the airline industry must contribute more to reducing greenhouse gases, blamed for global warming.