Brussels, 15/09/2015 (Agence Europe) - MEPs from seven of the European Parliament's political groups (EPP, S&D, ECR, ALDE, GUE/NGL, Greens/EFA and EFDD) called on Monday 14 September for the EU to argue for international shipping and international civil aviation to be made to contribute to global efforts to tackle climate change, with a target for reducing their emissions.
Ahead of the extraordinary meeting of environment ministers on Friday 18 September at which the EU negotiating position for the Paris climate conference (COP 21, 30 November-11 December) is expected to be finalised, the MEPs wrote to Carole Dieschbourg, who currently chairs the Council, to ask that their call be reflected in the Council conclusions.
International aviation and shipping already account for up to 8% of the global climate change problem and their emissions are forecast to grow by 200-300% for aviation and 50-250% for shipping by 2050. Such increases would undermine efforts to limit the rise of global temperature to under 2 degrees, argue the signatories of the letter. They say that it is “of paramount importance” that the text of the global agreement to be concluded in Paris include a requirement that the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to show greater ambition.
The MEPs believe that the market-based mechanism on which ICAO is working to achieve its target of carbon neutral growth by 2020 “already falls well short of what is needed”. Indeed, it is by no means certain that ICAO will reach an agreement at its 2016 Assembly, they point out. In May, the IMO stepped back from even launching a process to set up an emissions target for international shipping, “despite the fact that there is an abundance of low-cost mitigation options” that would permit global shipping to grow while arresting the growth of its emissions, the signatories state.
Transport & Environment, an NGO that argues for sustainable transport, shares the same point of view. “It's simply fair to demand from two economic sectors with emissions the size of Germany and South Korea to reduce CO2 emissions in line with keeping the global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius. The IMO and ICAO have been procrastinating so far. The time for action has come”, said Sotiris Raptis, clean shipping officer at the organisation. The European Parliament called last week for emissions reduction target for 2030 to be set for shipping and for measures to reduce ships' speed (slow steaming). (Aminata Niang)