Brussels, 24/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - The EU is expecting much of the two-week General Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which opened in Montreal on Tuesday 24 September, with regard to the future contribution of the aviation sector to global efforts to tackle climate change. The ball, however, is in non-EU countries' court. Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas was due to spell this out at the start of this crucial meeting, the EU having already assumed its responsibilities in adopting difficult measures which demonstrate its determination to reach an agreement to reduce the sector's worldwide footprint.
At this meeting, the draft agreement discussed in the ICAO Council at the start of September will be formally presented. This agreement could pave the way to a global agreement on reduction of the sector's CO2 emissions, to be finalised in 2016 before coming into force in 2020, the EU hopes. In return for a commitment from all in Montreal, the EU is prepared to relax its ETS directive rules (see EUROPE 10915). An agreement is not yet done and dusted, and the exact words to be used are still causing controversy, said Peter Liese (EPP, Germany) Parliament rapporteur on Tuesday, going on to give warning that this minimum agreement was needed if the EU ETS is to remain in place.
In an open letter sent the same day, Liese, Matthias Groote (S&D, Germany) and Mathieu Grosch (EPP, Belgium) call on ICAO President Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez to prevent the pitfall of a US demand for a threshold below which most countries, including the industrialised countries, would not be covered by a worldwide market-based instrument similar to the ETS. They reiterate that, if no substantive agreement on reducing international aviation CO2 emissions is reached, the one-year exemption to the ETS agreed in April for intercontinental flights would be ended.
Marcin Korolec, the Polish environment minister who will chair the 19th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change (COP 19, Warsaw, 11-22 November) hopes that an agreement will be reached. “I hope that these negotiations will not impact negatively on COP 19” he told the press recently in Brussels (our translation). (AN/transl.fl)