Scroll down for French and Spanish Following the Paris Agreement, 2016 will be another crucial year for climate as countries are set to adopt the first ever agreement on limiting the emissions of the aviation sector. So far however, the proposal is far from being ambitious. It is up to the civil society to raise …
Background In October this year, member countries of the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will decide what role the aviation sector should play in tackling climate change. As this will be the first important milestone in tackling aviation emissions, civil society must play a decisive role in lobbying for stringent rules, ambitious targets, and …
2016 will be key for the aviation sector, responsible for 4.9% of global yearly greenhouse gas emissions. In October, UN member countries, gathered under the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) assembly, will decide what role aviation should play in tackling climate change. Only an ambitious agreement can fulfill the Paris agreement objective to limit global …
Read more “Aviation emissions: letters to national environment Ministers”
The Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) of the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) concluded its meeting to make recommendations on a number of measures to reduce CO2 emissions from international flights on Friday 12th February.
“Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.” ― Henry David Thoreau Unfortunately for Thoreau, humans did conquer the skies, and aviation is now a significant contributor to climate change, contributing more CO2 to the atmosphere in 2014 than the combined emissions of the 129 lowest emitting countries[i]. …
Read more “Direction of aviation’s market based mechanism still up in the air”
Despite being major sources of emissions, international aviation and shipping are remaining below the radar of many negotiators in Paris – they are the elephants in the room. This is a shame, as together they account for around 5% of global CO2 emissions and have massive growth rates in emissions anticipated (50-250% by 2050 for …
ICAO is developing a Global Market Based Mechanism to achieve the goal of carbon neutral growth in the industry post-2020. Work is currently in progress to define which credits should be eligible to be used as offsets in this market.
Brussels, 22 October 2015. A new study by Oeko-Institut analyses for the first time potential carbon offset supply for a global market-based mechanism for international aviation emissions to be adopted in 2016. The study estimates that the entire demand could be met by carbon offsets from existing projects registered under the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism. Even if applying exclusion criteria for contentious project types, such as coal power and other non-additional projects, the supply would still be sufficient for eight years.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is busy developing a new market-based mechanism that will allow it to buy offsets to achieve the goal of limiting emissions to 2020 levels, despite rapid growth in the industry. In parallel, it has standards that aim to increase the fuel efficiency of aircraft. In 2010, ICAO agreed to achieve an annual 2% average fuel efficiency improvement to 2020. However, two new reports (links below) show that this goal is not yet being met, undermining the aviation industry’s need to reduce emissions.
The inclusion of international flights into the EU’s carbon market was one factor that created momentum for a global, rather than regional, measure to address aviation emissions. Recognizing Europe’s potential importance in the ongoing negotiations towards a global market based measure, open letters from fifteen NGOs across Europe were sent to EU’s transport and environment/climate ministers, calling on them to step up in promoting emissions reductions from aviation – a fast-growing and polluting sector.
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