India has warned the European Union (EU) that the carbon levy it has begun imposing on airlines will hinder future climate-change negotiations and demanded a rollback.

Environment minister Jayanthi Natarajan has written to the EU’s Commissioner for Climate and Energy Connie Hedegaard calling for an immediate reversal of the tax, which came into force on 1 January.

“I strongly urge the EU to reconsider and reverse the decision to apply the scheme to non-EU airlines,” Natrajan wrote in the letter dated 28 December 2011, as per a report in Mint by Tarun Shukla. While it does so, the EU should defer the levy for a year, the letter said.

Under the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS), airlines using EU airspace will have to pay a fee for carbon emissions that exceed a set limit. They will also need to pay for the part of the journey that’s over non-EU airspace. Indian carriers that fly to Europe, including Air India, Jet Airways (India) Ltd and Kingfisher Airlines Ltd, could together pay more than Rs. 300 crore in 2012 alone on account of the levy. The airlines would have to make the payment at the end of the year.

The inclusion of airlines in the European Union’s carbon plan will cost the industry 3.5 billion euros ($4.5 billion) and may increase ticket prices by an average of 3 percent, aviation information provider OAG said. 

“India strongly feels that a unilateral measure as the one proposed to be taken by EU, stands not only in violation of the principles and provisions of the (international) convention but will also not augur well for the success of future climate change negotiations,” Natarajan said in the letter.

India has led the opposition to the new tax with the support of more than two dozen countries, including the US and China, emphasizing that the move does not have the sanctity of any bilateral air services agreement.

The Indian government has also asked the country’s airlines to refrain from submitting carbon emissions data to the EU.