UN calls for tougher carbon emission targets for aviation

The UN calls for the aviation industry to improve fuel efficiency by 2% a year to 2020, reports Envido

The UN aviation authority, the ICAO, has agreed to halve carbon emissions from aviation by 2050.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) proposal released last month included halving carbon emissions from aviation by 2050, ensuring carbon emissions peak from the same date and improving fuel efficiency by 1.5% annually to 2020.

The ICAO rejected the IATA's target of ensuring carbon emissions peak from 2020, suggesting that carbon emission reduction targets should be replaced with a goal of delivering a further average annual fuel efficiency improvement of 2% a year between 2021 and 2050.

The chief executive of IATA, Giovanni Bisignani, said that short-term targets to improve fuel efficiency by 2% a year could only be met if they are accompanied by government-backed reforms to air traffic control regimes.

He added that there was limited progress on industry recommendations for a global carbon emission cap-and-trade scheme in aviation that would limit the market distortions threatened by regional schemes such as the European carbon emissions trading scheme (EUTS), with the ICAO committing only to establishing "the process to develop a framework for economic measures".

Russell Lerman Co-Managing Director at Envido said “The aviation industry has taken a step in the right direction towards a global sectoral approach to cutting carbon emissions, but there is still a lot of ground to cover to achieve the carbon emission reduction pursued."

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