A United States proposal for curbing aircraft emissions would exclude time spent flying over international waters, an approach that some environmental groups say is too timid in addressing the rise in greenhouse gasses from the aviation sector.
A Reuters report said the proposal would cover just a quarter of aviation emissions, according to some estimates, which is in sharp contrast to a European Union law that would require all airlines to pay a carbon fee for the entire flight if departing or arriving at EU airports.
A high-level group of negotiators is trying to develop a global plan to address aviation emissions and will meet again next month in talks sponsored by the ICAO, a United Nations body.
In 2012, the advent of an EU law requiring all aircraft using EU airports to pay for their carbon emissions via the bloc’s Emissions Trading Scheme stirred threats of a global trade war. The United States, China, India and Russia all lobbied fiercely against it.
Eventually, EU Climate Chief Connie Hedegaard said the EU would freeze its law for a year to give UN negotiators the chance to agree an alternative global plan.
Shortly afterwards, Hedegaard said President Barack Obama needed to address global environmental efforts. Obama’s appointment as Secretary of State of Senator John Kerry, a long-time champion of action on climate change, raised EU hopes.
When in the Senate, Kerry voted for a bill that would bar US airlines from complying with the EU emissions trading system but insisted that it also require ICAO to come up with an alternative solution.
To try to accelerate efforts, ICAO set up the high-level group of negotiators, which includes State Department climate envoy Todd Stern and the European Commission’s director general for climate action, Jos Delbeke. That group has held two meetings and will meet again at the end of March.
“The work in the high level group has not yielded extremely rapid and concrete progress,” a source close to the US State Department said on condition of anonymity.