(GENEVA) - Aviation industry association IATA on Tuesday slammed the European Parliament's move to force airlines to cap their greenhouse gas emisisons from 2012 and to pay for some of their pollution.

In a vote earlier Tuesday, 640 lawmakers at the European Parliament voted in favour of the plan to require all airlines operating in the 27-nation European Union -- including foreign carriers -- to join the emissions trading scheme.

Only 30 parliamentarians voted against and 20 abstained.

Giovanni Bisignani, IATA's Director General and CEO said: "It's absolutely the wrong answer to the very serious issue of environment. We support emissions trading but not this decision."

Europe has "taken the wrong approach, with the wrong conditions at the wrong time," he said.

At a time when the industry was weighed down by soaring fuel costs, the scheme could add 3.5 billion euros (5.46 billion dollars) to industry costs in the first year of operations, IATA said.

But there was "no guarantee" that the money would go toward environmental purposes, it added.

"It's time for Europe's politicians to be honest. This is a punitive tax put in place by politicians who want to paint themselves 'green.' Worse, it's not even part of a coordinated European policy," said Bisignani.

He reiterated that the move could even spark trade wars, as IATA officials have earlier warned.

IATA officials previously described the EU's plan as "unilateral" and said it violated an international aviation convention.

"Fuelling legal battles and trade wars is no way to help the environment. Already over 130 states have vowed to oppose it," said Bisignani.

IATA instead said that only a global scheme brokered through the United Nations agency, the International Civil Aviation Organisation, could work.

In addition, IATA said if Europe was serious about cutting emissions, it should hasten the conclusion of a Single European Sky proposal that aimed at reducing traffic jams in the skies and preventing planes from having to fly further to get to their destinations.

Text and Picture Copyright 2008 AFP. All other Copyright 2008 EUbusiness Ltd. All rights reserved. This material is intended solely for personal use. Any other reproduction, publication or redistribution of this material without the written agreement of the copyright owner is strictly forbidden and any breach of copyright will be considered actionable.