Clifford Chance

EU Aviation Emissions – ECJ Decision on US airlines' case

23 December 2011

On 21 December 2011, the European Union Court of Justice (the "ECJ") handed down its long-awaited judgment on the validity of the extension of the EU emissions allowance trading scheme (the "EU ETS") to aviation emissions. This arose from a referral by the English High Court to the ECJ for a preliminary ruling in relation to judicial review proceedings brought in the English courts by the Air Transport Association of America (the "ATAA") and certain US airlines (the "Airlines") against the UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change over measures implementing the EU ETS in the UK.

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