The governments, which include Russia, India, China and the U.S., claim an EU law forcing all airlines touching down or taking off within the bloc to pay for their CO2 emissions from last month is discriminatory and illegal, and some are prohibiting their carriers from complying.

They argue the scheme violates the Chicago Convention on international aviation as well as some provisions under the World Trade Organisation.

The group last met for a two-day meeting in New Delhi in late September 2011, where it issued a joint declaration against the scheme and agreed to lodge a formal protest with the U.N.'s International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

But that remonstration has since been overshadowed by a December ruling by the European Court of Justice, Europe's highest court, which found that the EU plan was within international law.