The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has narrowed its focus to address greenhouse gas emissions, eliminating the baseline and credit system, said Stephane Dubois, Spokesperson, ICAO. According to a Reuters report by Allison Martell, during ICAO’s governing council meeting in Montreal this week, it was agreed to rule out a baseline and credit trading scheme, where increases or decreases from an initial emissions baseline could be traded.
A panel of experts said the baseline and credit system should be discarded only because it would be nearly be identical to another option, global carbon offsetting which is still being considered.
The other remaining options are: offsetting with a revenue-generating mechanism, and cap and trade emissions trading. ICAO is under pressure to devise a global alternative due to stiff resistance from the United States, China and other nations over the European Union’s (EU) emissions trading scheme. Raymond Benjamin, Secretary General, ICAO earlier this month had said that he expected the council to have a draft plan by March 2013, rather than the end of 2012 as had been previously thought. Benjamin and others at ICAO have emphasised the difficulty of crafting a viable scheme. Any global system must approved by ICAO’s 191 members at its autumn 2013 assembly. The full assembly meets only once every three years. Under the EU’s current system, airlines must buy permits for greenhouse gas emissions for planes operating in, and travelling to and from, Europe. Opponents say that violates non-EU states’ sovereignty, and that ICAO is the right place to come up with an emission-reduction plan.
Click here to see the original article>The other remaining options are: offsetting with a revenue-generating mechanism, and cap and trade emissions trading. ICAO is under pressure to devise a global alternative due to stiff resistance from the United States, China and other nations over the European Union’s (EU) emissions trading scheme. Raymond Benjamin, Secretary General, ICAO earlier this month had said that he expected the council to have a draft plan by March 2013, rather than the end of 2012 as had been previously thought. Benjamin and others at ICAO have emphasised the difficulty of crafting a viable scheme. Any global system must approved by ICAO’s 191 members at its autumn 2013 assembly. The full assembly meets only once every three years. Under the EU’s current system, airlines must buy permits for greenhouse gas emissions for planes operating in, and travelling to and from, Europe. Opponents say that violates non-EU states’ sovereignty, and that ICAO is the right place to come up with an emission-reduction plan.