Brussels, 11/02/2016 (Agence Europe) - There's a world of difference between a global aircraft emissions restriction to be adopted in September 2016 and a market-based mechanism for cutting global aircraft emissions, explained MEPs on Wednesday 10 February.
Back from Montréal where agreement was reached on Monday 8 February at the international Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO)'s Aviation and Environmental Protection Commission (AEPC) on standards to guide the certification of low-fuel aircraft post-2020 (and from now until 2028 for other aircraft), MEPs on the European Parliament's delegation headed by Julie Girling (ECR, United Kingdom) put this outcome in context (see EUROPE 11486).
The MEPs say that the first global aircraft CO2 standard, to be formally adopted at the ICAO's thirty-ninth general assembly in September 2016, is simply a praise-worthy but “insufficient” first step in terms of what they expect from a global industry that has remained on the fringes of the fight against climate change since the Kyoto Protocol and which the Paris Agreement coddled by not including it in the general efforts.
Julie Girling (ECR, United Kingdom) said she welcomed the agreement as a step forwards but plenty of work remains to be done to reach a global market measure to be adopted by the ICAO in the autumn.
Aware that global international civil aviation emissions have increased by 76% since 1990 (the Kyoto Protocol reference year) and that if no regulations are introduced, they are likely to grow by 300% by 2050, she says a global measure is of capital importance in the context of the Paris Agreement and the objective of keeping the increase in global temperatures well below 2 degrees Celsius, but warned that insufficient action by the ICAO could jeopardise efforts made in other sectors.
The MEPs are circumspect, and for good reason. When the EU decided to add aviation to its emissions trading system (ETS), international civil aviation was not supposed to wriggle out of European rules on flights entering or leaving EU airports. It left a bitter taste in the mouth, therefore, when they had to agree in April 2014 to the EU amending the ETS Directive 2003/87/EC to take account of the global ICAO talks.
The threat of an international trade war waved by ETS-opposing third countries was in everyone's memory. The European Parliament gave its approval to the amendment in the hope of facilitating agreement at the ICAO this year that would come into force in 2020 on a global market-based mechanism to reduce international aviation emissions.
The EU “Stop the Clock” regulation therefore extends until 2017 the derogation to the ETS directive for long-haul courier flights, while the ETS legislation only covers intra-European flights by extending a derogation that was initially planned for one year. In the absence of agreement at the ICAO, the EU said then that the ETS would apply.
The European Commissioner was far less virulent in a press release published on 9 February, she said “Over the period until 2040 this standard could help save up to 650 million tonnes of CO2” but made no mention of cutting global emissions in a sector that is considering stabilising them at best.
Confident or perhaps diplomatic, European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc welcomed the Montreal deal, stating: “I hope this will create further momentum for the creation of a Global Market-Based Measure to offset CO2 emissions from international aviation,” (see EUROPE 11486). More laconically, European Climate Action Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete simply tweeted: “We welcome landmark deal - CO2 standard aircraft emissions.” (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)