Comment
ETS clock ticking, but ICAO mired in politics
March 1st 2013
The key message that Jos Delbeke, the European Commission’s (EC) director general of the Directorate General Climate Change brought to Orient Aviation’s 5th Greener Skies conference on aviation and the environment last month was that Brussels has more flexibility than thought on the thorny issue of re-starting the clock on its controversial emissions trading scheme (ETS). Read More »
Rather than insisting on a firm solution on a market-based measure (MBM) by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), when it gathers for its Assembly in September, it seems the EC will accept, at the very least, a firm commitment to a timetable towards a global ETS.
In the meantime, an agreed framework – or rule book – to guide ICAO’s 192 members in terms of introducing their own ETS schemes might prevent the re-introduction of the EU ETS for international carriers.
Now, the issue is whether ICAO and its high level committee looking at potential solutions can come up with the goods.
It’s a big question because the prospects are not looking particularly bright. Delbeke is a member of the high level group and his message on progress was mixed.
On the one hand, he expressed confidence ICAO would find a solution. On the other, he said progress was “disappointing”. He warned that if there was no solution, the EC was more than prepared to take the matter to the World Trade Organization, the forum for settling international trade disputes.
That would be unfortunate because it would signal an aviation trade war, which no one wants.
Others close to the group say its discussions remain mired in politics and finding agreement with all of ICAO’s 192 members is a huge challenge.
With just six months to go to the Assembly the group has met only twice and won’t meet again until the end of March. It hasn’t come to any solid decisions and there is even some confusion about its precise goal.
This is not good enough. The high level group needs to put politics aside and get down to the real business of finding an acceptable answer. The industry, which is doing more than its part in terms of reducing its carbon footprint, deserves it.
And, as Paul Steele, executive director of the Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), the industry’s observer at ICAO deliberations, said, it needs to focus on finding an aviation solution to an environment problem, not an environment solution to an aviation problem.
