The European Commission will draft rules requiring airlines to trade carbon emissions by the end of this year or early next year, AP quoted an EU spokeswoman as saying Wednesday. Barbara Helfferich said regulators had given the airlines a choice between a tax on carbon emissions or the trading scheme, and that they had picked the latter. «Some parts of the airline industry are opposed,» she said. «But when we asked them whether they preferred charges or taxation or emissions trading,» they had chosen the trading plan. The European Union's emissions trading program allows industry to trade allocations for carbon dioxide, encouraging them to reduce CO2. Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate change, the EU is to reduce emissions by 8 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Its emissions trading scheme is designed to help it meet that target without hurting businesses. The program limits carbon dioxide output in 21 nations, giving companies an allowance that they can sell on to others if they did not need to use the full amount. Cars and airplanes are major sources of the carbon dioxide emissions linked to climate change. Neither is currently covered by the scheme that gives industry a financial incentive to cut CO2.