EU sees aviation deal as green light for emissions trading

German MEP Peter Liese (European People's Party) said ICAO had once again failed to make any substantial progress towards cutting greenhouse gas emissions. He called for new approaches to reducing CO2 emissions given that the aviation industry had taken 13 years to negotiate while the sector's emissions had kept growing.

"I sincerely hope that we will be able to reach an ambitious global agreement in the scope of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and I will continue to work for a solution that includes aviation. Should states like China or India, who have been blocking negotiations in the past, be successful in blocking our aims on this level, we will have to try to expand our ETS bilaterally to other third countries," Liese argued.

The International Coordinating Council of Aerospace Industries Associations (ICCAIA) argued that the agreement marked a significant step towards a global strategy for addressing CO2 emissions from aviation.

"The aerospace manufacturing industry is committed to stepping up its efforts to deliver the breakthrough technologies which will further reduce the environmental impact of air transport," said François Gayet, secretary-general of the AeroSpace and Defence Industries Association of Europe, who chairs ICCAIA. "We call on governments to raise their level of support for research and development for new greener technologies. We also urge them to facilitate the deployment of more efficient air traffic management systems, such as SESAR in Europe and NextGen in the US."

Environmental groups argued that the EU's concession to engage constructively in discussion about exemptions for airlines from countries with low aviation emissions would undermine the effectiveness of the EU ETS. They pointed out that if the EU additionally went ahead with a plan to review whether emissions from inbound flights would be covered by the scheme, it could cut the emissions covered by the system by 40%.

"The EU has paid a heavy price to weaken opposition to its plan to include aviation in the ETS. It is obvious that additional measures will be needed to get spiralling aviation emissions growth under control. The EU should start with a kerosene tax and VAT on tickets," said Bill Hemmings of Transport & Environment (T&E).

"As a forum for agreeing, let alone implementing, global environmental targets for aviation emissions, ICAO is clearly not fit for purpose: its 13 year record of failure shows that. The fact that ICAO members repeated their calls this year for the institution to remain in charge looks absurd, and completely out of touch," he added.