EU Wants Airlines In Post-Kyoto Pact
January 21, 2009
The European Union will call next week for airlines to be included in a planned successor to the Kyoto pact, together with major worldwide investment to tackle climate change, a draft document shows.
The document lays out the European Commission's stance as it prepares for international talks in December in Copenhagen on a successor to the Kyoto protocol from 2013.
"Global net incremental investments to reduce global emissions need to increase gradually to around EUR175 billion euros (USD$226 billion) per year in 2020," said the draft document.
"Emissions from international aviation and maritime transport should be included in the overall targets set in the Copenhagen agreement and included in the national totals of the country of departure (or arrival)," it added.
The European Union agreed last year to make airlines pay for permits to pollute under its flagship emissions trading scheme (ETS), but shipping has been more difficult to regulate as it is often unclear where ships are domiciled.
The draft said the United Nations climate change agency should set targets for reducing shipping and aviation's climate impact below 2005 levels, with reductions to far below 1990 levels by 2050.
The EU has already prepared unilateral action to tackle shipping emissions in case its push for a global deal fails.
The document called for other countries to match the EU's plan for cutting carbon dioxide to avert climate change and the droughts, floods and rising sea levels it could bring.
"The EU has set the example by committing to a 30 percent reduction in emissions compared to 1990 levels by 2020, in the context of an international agreement," the draft said.
"The EU has also proposed that developed countries as a group should reduce their emissions by the same amount."
All OECD countries and present and future EU member states should commit to reductions, it added. That would create tough new demands on EU membership hopefuls such as Turkey.
It also laid out plans for expanding the EU's carbon market to link with others around the globe.
"The EU should seek to build by 2015 a robust OECD-wide carbon market through the linking of comparable cap and trade systems," it said.
Copyright © 2009 Aviation News Release
