Not quite. China banned its carriers from paying for emission credits. Guess what? Credits for the first year are free and all Chinese airlines have already applied for theirs!
Not quite. In 2012 85% of the credits are free. 15% are to be paid for.
Limited because they couldn't agree on stronger sanction, the US said not worth a trade war. The EU opponents want this solved at the ICAO, what the EU asked for all along.
The EU has no standing with ICAO (or any UN organisation) other than 'observer status', they are not allowed to speak. Only the 27 MS are allowed to negotiate. At the last meeting the EU told the MS not to propose anything that differed from ETS and not to agree anything other than ETS. Some negotiation.
ETS is misguided. CO2 produced from aviation is a low percentage of the total and aviation fuel cannot be substituted by anything else. Offsets, which do have a positive effect, cannot be used. Work is in progress for a 'green' drop-in substitute, but we are a long way from there.
The objective of the EC Commissioner for Climate change is to have airlines reduce their burn in the only way possible, buy reducing the number of flights. As the 85% free credits will reduce over time it only means that aviation will become more expensive (with no positive return from the extra expense) and it will become less efficient. Any airline that wants to grow (like the Chinese attempting to compete with EU airlines) has another trade barrier to face.