Foes of EU airlines carbon plan say back U.N. scheme

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seventeen countries opposed to an EU law that makes all airlines pay for carbon they emit on flights to and from Europe reaffirmed they want to keep working on an alternative plan at the U.N. global aviation body, a senior U.S. official said.

The European Commission has repeatedly said the only grounds for waiving its scheme, which has stirred threats of an international trade war, would be if the U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) could come up with an equally effective world-wide solution to rising airline emissions.