Air, Business, Freight News, Logistics

Lobby calls for emissions plan by year end

[ February 2, 2012   //   Chris ]

The Global Air Cargo Advisory Group (GACAG) has called on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to produce firm plans for airline emissions by the end of 2012.

GACAG has been highly critical of the EU’s controversial Emissions Trading Scheme and has campaigned for multilateral efforts to develop international Co2 emissions standards within ICAO. This, it says, would be in keeping with the recommendations of The Kyoto Protocol on climate change which designated ICAO as the body with authority to set international aviation’s greenhouse gas policy.
Michael Steen, chairman of GACAG, said: “We will support ICAO in this initiative and push to ensure the deadline for the end of this year is achieved. GACAG urges the European Commission to ‘come to the table’ to work with ICAO towards this global goal. In a recent exchange of correspondence with the EU Climate Action Commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, she stated that the EU was very much in favor of a global approach to aviation emissions but that its work to achieve this with ICAO was just too slow. Ms Hedegaard also stated that the EU remained committed to fully support global action and we now expect the EU to participate with ICAO towards a sensible resolution. We hope this will also take into account the progress the aviation industry is making in terms of sustainability and the environment and its critical role in worldwide economic development.”