An airlines industry lobbyist says passengers will be the ones paying for pollution credits that all airlines arriving or leaving from airports in the European Union will be required by buy beginning in 2012 under a new European Emissions Trading System, The New York Times reports.

As in the past, some U.S. officials say applying the landmark agreement reached last week by representatives of the European Parliament and by European governments to U.S. and other non-European Union airlines may be illegal under the convention governing international civil aviation.

According to an unidentified source from the article, if other countries introduce similar measures, the EU would not regulate flights leaving countries like the U.S. twice.

Earlier this month, the French-Dutch Air France-KLM said the terms of the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme are “discriminatory” and threaten the financial well being of already stressed oil-dependent airlines.