ICAO drops one of its 4 possible options for a global aviation emissions scheme

Date added: 30 June, 2012

The ICAO has narrowed its focus to 3 broad options to address aviation emissions, eliminating the baseline and credit system. ICAO’s governing council, meeting in Montreal this week, agreed to rule the scheme, where increases or decreases from an initial emissions baseline could be traded. It is being dropped as it is similar to another option being considered, global carbon offsetting. The 3 other remaining options are: offsetting with a revenue-generating mechanism, and cap and trade emissions trading.  ICAO expects to have something agreed by March 2013, though environmental commentators are sceptical they can deliver anything effective. Connie Hedegaard would like to see progress by the November ICAO meeting.

 

ICAO Narrows Emissions Options

June 30, 2012 (Reuters)

The ICAO has narrowed its focus to three broad options to address greenhouse gas emissions, eliminating the baseline and credit system, a spokeswoman said.
ICAO’s governing council, meeting in Montreal this week, agreed to rule out a baseline and credit trading scheme, where increases or decreases from an initial emissions baseline could be traded, spokeswoman Stephane Dubois said.

In the working paper, a panel of experts said the baseline and credit system should be discarded only because it would be nearly identical to another option still being considered, global carbon offsetting. The other remaining options are: offsetting with a revenue-generating mechanism, and cap and trade emissions trading.

Stiff resistance from the United States, China and other nations over the European Union’s emissions trading scheme has the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) under pressure to devise a global alternative.

The paper did not recommend whether participants in the scheme should be states or airlines, or how the rules should be enforced.

Sanjeev Kumar, senior associate of environmental group E3G, was disappointed by ICAO’s progress.

“This just highlights the leadership the EU has taken on the issue. ICAO does not look like a forum capable of delivering,” he said.

ICAO Secretary General Raymond Benjamin said earlier this month that he expected the council to have a draft plan by March 2013, rather than the end of 2012 as had been previously thought.

Benjamin and others at ICAO have emphasised the difficulty of crafting a viable scheme. Any global system must approved by ICAO’s 191 members at its autumn 2013 assembly. The full assembly meets only once every three years.

Under the EU’s current system, airlines must buy permits for greenhouse gas emissions for planes operating in, to and from Europe. Opponents say that violates non-EU states’ sovereignty, and that ICAO is the right place to come up with an emission-reduction plan.
(Reuters)

 

http://news.airwise.com/story/view/1341028169.html

 

 

EU Climate Boss Calls For Early UN Carbon Plan

June 28, 2012 (Reuters)
The European Union is looking to the ICAO to decide on a global scheme for curbing airline emissions at its November meeting, the bloc’s climate boss said after inconclusive talks in Montreal this week.
Angry opponents of an EU law to make all airlines using EU airports pay for their carbon emissions have called on the ICAO to solve the dispute by coming up with an alternative way to tackle the rise in emissions from aircraft.
The extent of the row, which has stirred threats of a trade war, has increased pressure on ICAO to deliver a solution, but some say the high politics has also made it even more difficult to decide on one.
Talks this week at ICAO in Montreal eliminated only one of four market-based schemes under discussion.
“By narrowing down the market-based options on the table, ICAO is making some progress towards the long-awaited global deal to curb aviation emissions,” Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said on Thursday in a statement.
But she said she was looking to ICAO “to reach conclusions” at its November meeting.
“States supporting global solutions now have a unique opportunity to show how serious they are about it by choosing one of the three market-based measures in the coming months,” she said.
ICAO’s secretary-general said earlier this month he did not expect to have a draft proposal ready until March 2013.
The Commission has repeatedly said the only reason for it to modify its law requiring airlines to buy allowances under its EU Emissions Trading Scheme would be if the ICAO can agree a global plan.
Alternative national measures to deal with airline pollution could also allow for exemptions from the EU law, the Commission has said.
(Reuters)

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Posted: Saturday, June 30th, 2012. Filed in Climate Change News, Recent News.