The European Commission slashed Poland’s proposed limit on carbon dioxide (CO2) emission permits for 2008-2012 by more than a quarter on Monday, setting up a battle with Warsaw over its plan to fight climate change.

The European Union executive also cut the Czech Republic’s proposed cap by 14.8 percent, while it accepted the emissions limits proposed by France.

Larry Boggs, GE’s senior counsel in the environmental programs, said the U.S. Climate Action Partnership or CAP concluded that intensity-based emissions targets like those favoured by the Conservative government, would not achieve the kind of reductions that are necessary to combat climate change effectively.

“With emissions rising at the rate they are projected, we didn’t think we could get there from here through intensity-based targets; it had to be an absolute cap,” Mr. Boggs said in an interview.

The European Commission’s original aviation emissions scheme proposal called for intra-European Union flights to join the trading scheme in 2011 and international flights in 2012. The Commission now urges all airlines to participate in 2011 in a joint effort to fight climate change.