Eco-Aviation Channel

ICAO advancing on global cap-and-trade scheme

By Geoffrey Thomas
Eco-Aviation Today, February 10, 2009, p.4

ICAO is moving ahead with plans for an international carbon emissions cap-and-trade scheme despite a growing number of rival regional schemes. Speaking in Tokyo on Jan. 15, Roberto Gonzalez, president of the ICAO Council, told delegates to the Ministerial Conference on Global Environment and Energy in Transport that EU moves to include aviation in its regional emissions trading scheme will not derail ICAO's plans to build a framework that could underpin a global scheme.

Gonzalez said that at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change talks last year, a number of delegates stressed the urgency of developing concrete proposals for the COP/15 meeting in December in Copenhagen, where the objective will be to produce this new climate agreement. He told ministers: "First of all, emissions from international aviation are, by definition, global in nature; they are not contained within national boundaries. Assigning international emissions is an extremely complex task at best and even more difficult to implement or enforce."

He highlighted that "the Kyoto Protocol stipulates that emissions from international aviation are to be dealt with through ICAO while emissions from domestic aviation are included in targets for Annex 1 Parties. There is much merit to this approach." He added that "achieving consistent improvements in the energy efficiency of air transport requires globally harmonized environmental aviation standards, procedures and practices that need to be cooperatively established and universally accepted and implemented."

Gonzalez reminded ministers that "the aviation industry has a remarkable track record of continuously improving the efficiency of its operations in minimizing the impact of air travel on the environment and specifically climate change."

Speaking to Reuters after his speech, he said ICAO would develop a global scheme that would create a universal carbon pricing scheme under which the entire global industry would operate. "ICAO is a global organization, it is not a regional organization. We have to work on a global basis and this is our responsibility," he said.

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