Green taxes are soaring. To be precise, to 30,000 feet as the EU’s new carbon tax on airlines for all flights to or from Europe kicked in on January 1. While the levies involved will push profit margins to the limit for some, with ETS carbon permits trading at pathetically low levels and expected to stay that way through 2012, the pain in the first year for airlines may not be as much as the €1.1 billion initially projected. Even so, letting the plane take the carbon strain represents seriously poor long-term strategic planning for Europe given the looming global trade war it is about to ignite.
