Three U.S. airlines and the Air Transport Association sued the
U.K. government to challenge the first stage of the country’s
implementation of European Union emission-trading regulations.
American Airlines, Continental Airlines and United Airlines
joined the ATA in the complaint, saying the rules “violated the
U.S.-EU bilateral Air Transport Agreement of April 2007 and the
Kyoto Protocol.” The EU is adding airlines to the European
emissions-trading system, the world’s biggest greenhouse-gas
market, in 2012 to fight climate change. The system imposes a
cap on industrial emissions of carbon dioxide, the main
greenhouse gas blamed for rising temperatures. United Nations
scientists say reductions in emissions are needed to keep the
planet from overheating. By 2020, developed nations must cut
emissions 25 percent to 40 percent from 1990 to “stand a chance”
of keeping the global temperature within 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit
of pre-industrial times, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change has said. According