Airlines have reacted angrily to a decision by the European Parliament to include aviation in the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
Organisations representing airlines said it threatened the industry's future.
The decision by the MEPs is also likely to put the EC on a collision course with US carriers.
The European Parliament voted on Tuesday to include all international flights in and out of the EU area as well as all internal flights in the ETS from 2011.
This is a year earlier than planned by the EC.
The MEPs' decision will now go before the EU's council of environmental ministers on December 20.
Sylviane Lust, director general of the International Air Carrier Association (IACA) said: "Let there be no doubt that the Parliament's punitive design of the ETS scheme would damage the aviation sector beyond repair.
"The elements of the scheme as voted, and topped by a multiplier, would amount to approximately 11bn per year in additional costs for airlines which they are unlikely to be able to absorb."
Giovanni Bisignani, director general and ceo of the International Air Transport Association (IATA), said: "Climate change is a serious problem and hypocrisy is not the answer.
"We could be saving 12 million tonnes of CO2 annually with an effective Single European Sky.
"Instead of making that a reality, Europe is single-mindedly pursuing a political agenda of emissions trading that does nothing to improve environmental performance.
"I don't see the European Parliament planting many trees, but somehow they have got lost in the woods,”
The Association of European Airlines also hit out at the vote as "a massive blow to the viability and competitiveness of the European airline industry, a barely measurable step for the environment, and extremely bad news for European growth and cohesion."
Its director general Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus added: "This vote reflects political compromises more than it does the reality of the environmental challenge and aviation's real contribution to the issue - not to mention the fact that it is not based on any kind of impact assessment."
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