Indian and Chinese carriers snub EU on carbon Ten Chinese and Indian airlines have refused to tell the European Union how much pollution they emitted last year, in what appears to be the first show of non-compliance with Brussels" move to charge carriers for their carbon emissions. The airlines - two from India and eight from China - could face fines unless they respond to requests for the data. Dozens of countries, including the US and Russia, have attacked the EU for making all airlines flying into the bloc subject to its carbon emissions trading scheme from this year. However, Connie Hedegaard, the EU climate commissioner, revealed on Tuesday that only the Chinese and Indian carriers had disobeyed a requirement of the scheme to hand over details to the EU countries to which they fly most of how much carbon they emitted for 2011. The UK handles Indian airlines and several countries, including Germany and France, handle Chinese carriers. The data do not trigger any payments, which are not due for some time. Ms Hedegaard said the recalcitrant airlines represented less than 1 per cent of the 1,200 emission reports handed over by other airlines, and less than 3 per cent of emissions. Separately, she said greenhouse gas emissions from the thousands of factories and plants covered by the EU emissions trading system (ETS), the world's largest carbon market, fell by more than 2 per cent in 2011, despite an improvement in the global economy. "This good result shows that the ETS is delivering cost-effective emissions reductions," she said. It also emphasises why the ETS remains the engine to drive low-carbon growth in Europe.