Brussels, 02/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The attention of observers was focused on the environmental aspect of the talks at the ICAO General Assembly, which have now entered the final straight in Montreal, on Wednesday 2 October. It will only be at the plenary session on Friday 4 October, however, that it will be known whether the 192 participants will manage to formally endorse the keenly negotiated draft agreement and thereby pave the way for a global agreement on reducing civil aviation's CO2 emissions, to be finalised in 2016 to come into force in 2020 (see EURIOPE 10928).
The talks will continue until the last minute, probably Friday evening, admitted Helen Kearns, spokesperson for European Commission Vice-President Siim Kallas, on Wednesday 2 October. Kallas is in Montreal representing the Commission and, with the Lithuanian Presidency of the Council of Ministers, is defending the position defined with Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard. It will be for the plenary to decide, by majority vote, whether exemptions to the EU's emissions trading scheme (ETS), hoped for by many third countries for those countries with low carbon emissions, will be accepted and, above all, whether third countries will be able to accept that the ETS can be applied unilaterally before the new international agreement, based on a global market instrument, comes into force. At this stage, all is still to play for. Kearns, however, was upbeat. Discussions on the environment are under way, she said, adding that there is very strong European unity. “We want a global solution. The ICAO now seems prepared to act on CO2 emissions. Negotiations are likely to continue until Friday's very last session. An agreement could be forthcoming late on Friday. The window of opportunity is there until Friday”, she said.
In return for a commitment from all in favour of a global agreement, the EU is prepared to relax the conditions of its ETS directive (see EUROPE 10915) and then, if there is no substantive agreement on reducing international civil aviation's CO2 emissions, the ETS exemption granted in April for a period of one year for intercontinental flights will be removed. European Parliament rapporteur Peter Liese said on Wednesday: “Until we have an international market instrument in 2020, the EU can keep its ETS legislation, restricting its scope to European airspace. This is more than what is provided for by the 'Stop the clock' decision which only covers internal European flights”. This, however, would run the serious risk of launching the trade war with which those countries which oppose the ETS (China and India, in particular) have previously threatened the EU. (AN/transl.fl)