Emissions trading: will Europe’s concession to ICAO be just hot air? Airlines hold their breath

The European Union has proposed to limit until 2020 its Emissions Trading System to that part of an intercontinental flight that operates within EU airspace, in an attempt to persuade the UN agency ICAO to reach a global solution to the carbon emissions problem. The next three-yearly ICAO assembly, starting in Montreal on 24-Sep-2013, is expected to include a resolution about the use of global market-based measures aimed at reducing aviation's emissions.

IATA's annual meeting in Jun-2013 backed a plan based on airlines offsetting their emissions after 2020 by purchasing so-called carbon permits (which allow the purchaser to emit carbon dioxide, CO2) from other sectors that manage to reduce pollution. IATA represents 240 airlines globally, but there remain significant hurdles to a global agreement since, ultimately, it is governments (through ICAO) that will have to agree any measures.