UN climate science body’s (IPCC) report highlights that aviation must accelerate emissions reductions

The IPCC’s Special Report on trying to keep global warming to 1.5C highlights that we are not on target to keep global warming to below 2 degrees C much less 1.5C as countries agreed to in the Paris Agreement in 2015. Most notably, the report shows that progress in the transportation sector is lagging behind and needs to start its own transformation immediately This includes the global aviation sector. Some downplay the extent of aviation’s climate impact – some 5% of global warming when accounting for both CO2 and climate effects at altitude. The international portion of aviation’s emissions was “excluded” from the Paris Agreement and is being addressed entirely inadequately by the UN’s ICAO instead. But the IPCC report makes clear that cutting emissions from the fast growing aviation sector is essential. ICSA (the International Coalition for Sustainable Aviation) says:  “The IPCC makes clear that, without action on this major and growing source of emissions, the goal of limiting a temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C cannot be achieved. The report’s finding that efficiency improvements alone aren’t enough is a wake-up call to governments to put aviation on a flightpath to decarbonisation to ensure the sector plays its part in delivering a zero-carbon future.”
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UN climate science body’s (IPCC) report highlights that aviation must accelerate emissions reductions

8th October 2018

By ICSA – the International Coalition for Sustainable Aviation

The IPCC’s Special Report on 1.5C highlights that we are not on target to keep global warming to below 2 degrees C much less 1.5C as countries agreed to in the Paris Agreement in 2015.  [IPCC  is the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change].

Most notably, the report shows that, while transformational change is happening in the power
sector with the rapid expansion of renewable electricity generation capacity, progress in the
transportation sector is lagging behind and needs to start its own transformation immediately
This includes the global aviation sector, which encompasses emissions from domestic and
international flights.

Some continue to downplay the extent of aviation’s climate impact – some 5% of global
warming when accounting for both CO2 and climate effects at altitude. Likewise some claim that the international portion of aviation’s emissions was “excluded” from the Paris Agreement and should be addressed by the UN International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

But the report makes clear that cutting emissions from this fast growing sector is essential if we are to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement.

“This report clears up any doubts some might have had that international aviation emissions are covered by the Paris Agreement,” said Andrew Murphy, aviation and climate expert
speaking on behalf of the International Coalition for Sustainable Aviation. ​

“The IPCC makes clear that, without action on this major and growing source of emissions, the goal of limiting a temperature increase to 1.5 degrees C cannot be achieved. The report’s finding that efficiency improvements alone aren’t enough is a wake-up call to governments to put aviation on a flightpath to decarbonization to ensure the sector plays its part in delivering a zero-carbon future.”

Additional resources:

● International Coalition for Sustainable Aviation and Climate Action Network International.
(2018). Contribution of the global aviation sector to achieving the Paris Agreement
Climate Objectives. Submission to the Talanoa Dialogue. Available here.
● International Coalition for Sustainable Aviation. (2018). Understanding the CORSIA
Package: A critical guide to key provisions in the draft standards and recommended
practices and related guidance material for the UN International Civil Aviation
Organization’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation
(CORSIA). Available here.

https://www.icsa-aviation.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/ICSA-statement-on-IPCC.pdf

https://www.icsa-aviation.org/

International Coalition for Sustainable Aviation

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http://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/

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See earlier:

ICAO’s aviation offsetting deal is a weak start – now countries must go further to cut CO2

A deal was finally agreed by ICAO on 6th October.  It was progress, in that there had never been any sort of agreement on global aviation CO2 emissions before. But it was not a great deal – and far too weak to provide the necessary restriction on the growth of global aviation CO2.  It came in the same week that the Paris Agreement crossed its crucial threshold to enter into force, but the ICAO deleted key provisions for the deal to align its ambitions with the Paris aim of limiting global temperature rise to well below 2 degrees with best efforts to not exceed 1.5 degrees C. Tim Johnson, Director of AEF and the lead representative of The International Coalition for Sustainable Aviation (ICSA) – the official environmental civil society observer at the global negotiations, said in relation to the UK: “But while today’s deal is applauded, this international effort falls well short of the effort required to bring UK aviation emissions in line with the Climate Change Act. With a decision on a new runway expected later this month, the UK’s ambition for aviation emissions must match the ambition of the Climate Change Act, and not simply the ICAO global lowest common denominator of carbon neutral growth from 2020. The ICAO scheme could make a contribution towards the ambition of the Climate Change Act, but it does not solve the whole problem.” 

https://www.airportwatch.org.uk/2016/10/draft-icao-deal/

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