China has stepped up the pressure on the European Commission over the controversial charge on airline carbon emissions by barring its airlines from complying.
Airlines could not pay any fees without government permission, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said on Monday, in a statement on the government's official Web site.
“China will consider adopting necessary measures to protect interests of Chinese individuals and companies, pending the development of the issue,” the statement said.
The development follows the Climate Change Commissioner, Ms Connie Hedegaard's visit to India last week, during which she said the EU would consider whether to accept equivalent measures to reduce emissions in the place of the charges for planes that land, or take off from European airports.
It also comes ahead of an EU-India summit in New Delhi on February 10, and an equivalent China summit in Beijing on February 14.
India has urged the EU to withdraw the charges, and has warned that retaliatory measures could be considered in response.
In September, it joined 25 other nations in condemning the ‘unilateral' scheme.
“We have a provision for equivalent measures,” Mr Isaac Valero Ladron, spokesperson for Ms Hedegaard, told a press conference on Monday.
“We are not saying it has to be a carbon market as the EU has opted to do it.”
Mr Ladron pointed to the fact that so far Chinese airlines had complied with the legislation, which requires airlines to buy 15 per cent of their pollution permits for a year.
However, he warned that non-compliance and the resultant €100 a tonne fine would prove “much more costly” for airlines.
Last month, the European Court of Justice ruled that the charge, which came into effect at the start of January, was permissible under the international law, following legal action by the US Air Transport Association.