IATA has called on all aviation stakeholders to stay focused on “delivering a vision for a sustainable future”.
The organisation’s chief executive Tony Tyler (pictured) told an environmental action group summit in Geneva that the aviation industry must remain centred on:
- Finding ways for biofuels to deliver a real contribution to aviation’s environmental performance
- Making the balanced approach work even harder to manage issues around aircraft noise
- Ensuring that a global mandatory carbon offsetting scheme is implemented to help the industry achieve carbon-neutral growth from 2020.
In October the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) struck a deal for a global emissions scheme by 2016, which would be implemented by 2020. The agreement is the first-ever global deal to curb aviation emissions.
Tyler said although the decision by the ICAO to create a framework for a global market measure (MBM) on airline emissions was an important milestone, “the hard work is yet to come”.
“The discussions on the details of the MBM will not be easy, but we must stay the course. If we remain united, we earn our license to grow with our stakeholders and our passengers.
“And we will have the strength to find solutions to the challenges that are likely to emerge—particularly with respect to the development of a global MBM.”
Emissions trading featured inBBT’s Hot List 2014.
Emissions trading
Despite the framework set out by the ICAO, the European Union (EU) seems determined to continue with its own regional emissions trading scheme (ETS), by starting to charge non-EU airlines for their emissions within European airspace from January 1, 2014 – even though this was struck out of the ICAO agreement.
This move by the EU has already provoked the ire of politicians in the US who said it “violates the spirit and the letter” of the ICAO deal. In any case, President Obama signed the ETS Prohibition Act, which makes it illegal for US airlines to comply with EU ETS, into law in 2012.
The EU has played an admirable game of brinkmanship to help create a global agreement for an airline ETS. Now we will find out how hard the EU wants to push this regional scheme in the next few months.