China, India and the United States have joined other nations in approving a road map for building the first global market to reduce emissions from the US$700 billion airlines industry.
The executive committee of the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) assembly backed a draft measure that would set final details in 2016 for a market starting in 2020.
Bloomberg newsagency reports the restrictions for airlines, now approved at a plenary meeting in Montreal, is unprecedented for a single global industry.
Australia’s new conservative Liberal-National coalition government has backed away from the previous Labor government’s enthusiasm for the global aviation emissions deal, with Infrastructure Minister Warren Truss saying that Australia would not commit to a market-based deal.
In a blow to the European Union, envoys gathered in Montreal declined to validate its plan to include aviation in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) prior to the start of the international program.
Russia, Argentina and others rejected the 28-nation EU’s offer to scale back the geographic scope of its carbon curbs on airlines in exchange for a global commitment to reduce pollution from the industry, which emits two per cent of greenhouse gases globally.
“After some very challenging discussions, including compromises by all parties, ICAO has made a strong commitment in favour of taking multilateral action to tackle climate change,” said Todd Stern, the US special envoy on climate.
The issue of aviation emissions made it to the top of the ICAO agenda after the EU expanded its carbon market in 2012 to cover carriers from around the world, a step that triggered protests from China and Saudi Arabia to Brazil.
Europe, which wants to be the leader in cutting greenhouse gases, has said its goal was to encourage an international solution.
Reducing carbon dioxide would help limit global warming that exacerbates heat waves, flooding and intense storms, according to UN scientists.
Envoys voted today 97 to 39, with nine abstentions, to remove a provision allowing the EU to continue a limited market for carriers.
Instead, the measure encourages member states to agree on designs and implementations for new and existing CO2 markets.
The draft would also give an initial exemption to routes to and from developing states if their share of international civil aviation is below one per cent.
“If this were a boxing match, the EU emissions trading system sadly is down on the mat,” said Jean Leston, transport policy manager at the British branch of environment lobby WWF.
The EU, which suspended its carbon curbs on foreign flights for a year to facilitate ICAO talks, will now have to decide if the deal is strong enough to relax its emission rules.
The freeze will expire automatically next year unless the bloc’s regulator moves to renew it.
That would mean the system returns to its original design, where flights to and from Europe were subject to greenhouse gas limits at their entire length.
Restoring full EU curbs on international routes would mean a trade war, and if it takes place, major countries won’t comply with the bloc’s carbon rules, India’s representative to ICAO Prashant Sukul said earlier.
Before Europe suspended carbon curbs on foreign flights, US President Barack Obama signed a bill shielding carriers including Delta Air Lines from the EU legislation, and Russia announced it was considering limits on European flights over Siberia as part of possible retaliatory measures.
Airbus SAS said in June that 27 orders from China for A330 wide-body jetliners were still in limbo after the government there froze the contracts as part of a campaign against the EU plans.
The compromise deal just approved requests that the 36-nation ICAO Council finish work on technical aspects and options for a global carbon market.
The outcome will be reported to the agency’s next triennial assembly for a decision.
Tony Tyler, director general of IATA, the trade association for global airlines, addressed the final plenary session, praising the “historic decision of this assembly to develop a global MBM for international aviation.”
IATA plans to work with the ICAO’s governing council over the next three years to design a scheme
