First-ever global deal struck on airline CO2 emissions
The full agreement is not scheduled to take effect until 2020 but the most contentious issues have been resolved
A first-ever global deal on curbing the airline industry’s rising carbon emissions was agreed on Friday, the International Civil Aviation Organization said, though hammering out the details could take years.
The full agreement is not scheduled to take effect until 2020 but the most contentious issues have been resolved, officials said, as the ICAO’s full assembly met behind closed doors in Montreal.
The deal “is an historic milestone for air transport and for the role of multilateralism in addressing global climate challenges,” ICAO Council President Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez said in a statement.
Air transport “now becomes the only major industry sector to have a multilateral global market-based mechanism agreement in place to help govern future greenhouse gas emissions,” he added.
Leading up to the vote, China and India had joined the United States and Russia in balking at a European Union push for a carbon levy on flights within three years.
But at midday, after some 1,400 delegates representing 170 member states voted on the executive committee’s resolution, officials said the plan had been passed and details of the accord would follow.