The ICAO has a year to come up with a framework for aviation emissions, as the EU suspends international flights from its trading scheme

In November the European commission unexpectedly announced it would freeze the application of the EU emissions trading scheme to non-EU flights for a year. 

According to climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard, the decision by the EU will enable the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) time to develop a global framework for a market-based emissions reduction scheme relevant to international aviation.

Industry experts say the EU’s climbdown is a result of pressure from aircraft manufacturers and overwhelming global opposition to the EU’s decision to pull international aviation into the EU ETS. 

Countries such as China, India and the US have consistently opposed the EU ETS decision on the grounds that any agreement on international aviation emissions must be global and come through ICAO.

Most recently, a new US law was enacted that shields US airlines from the EU ETS. While the move will have no immediate effect in light of the EU’s decision it could affect future relations between the US and EU, should ICAO fail to develop and agree a global framework.

According to the Aviation Environment Federation, opposition to the EU ETS has been one of political principle rather than any fundamental rejection of the scheme itself.

“Disquiet towards the EU’s decision is not so much based on how it will impact in terms of cost, but more in terms of the principle – that the EU was looking to impose measures beyond its borders,” says Cait Hewitt, deputy director of the federation.

Environmental groups have tentatively welcomed the decision as positive. According to Vicky Wyatt of Greenpeace UK, the EU ETS was never a panacea to the problem of international aviation emissions. “Our concern was that by putting international aviation into the EU emissions scheme, policy-makers were putting off difficult political decisions around UK airport capacity and expansion,” says Wyatt.

There is, however, scepticism that ICAO can deliver. “The track record of ICAO in terms of delivering real emissions reductions is poor,” adds Wyatt. “That’s why aviation needs to be part of a global deal.”

Stung into action  

Addressing greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation has long been a headache for international policy-makers. Excluded from the 1997 Kyoto protocol because of difficulties in determining how to allocate emissions to different countries, responsibility for reducing emissions has instead rested with the ICAO.

Now, ICAO appears to have been pressured into action. In mid-November it announced the formation of a special high-level group charged with investigating the feasibility of a global market-based measure and a global policy framework to guide its application.

According to ICAO’s secretary-general, Raymond Benjamin, a draft resolution on a global policy framework will need to be produced in time for the organisation’s annual general assembly in September 2013. Putting in place a global market-based scheme may take much longer, however.

“We don’t have to come to that general assembly with a global scheme. We have to come with a global framework and an answer to the question about the feasibility of a global scheme,” says Benjamin. “The objective remains carbon-neutral growth of the aviation industry by 2020.”