Air France-KLM, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic back plan to cut aviation emissions

For the first time, four major airlines of the world have joined hands to support a global scheme to check carbon emissions from the aviation industry.  The airlines Air France-KLM, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic, Britain’s airports operator BAA Airports Limited, and the international non-governmental organization called The Climate Group, have proposed a deal that would cover all types of carbon pollution from the international aviation sector.

The group, named the Aviation Global Deal Group, said in a statement that it hoped that the proposal would be included in a broader United Nations agreement to combat climate change.

At the recent United Nations climate-change talks held in Bonn, Germany, the coalition proposed a worldwide emissions limit for all airlines aiming to include the aviation industry in a climate treaty that 192 countries aim to sign in December 2009, in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The six-member Aviation Global Deal Group presented its proposal to the UN climate-change meet in Bonn which ended on April 6, 2009.

Representatives from 175 nations took part in the parleys at the Bonn meeting, which was mainly intended to develop a broader pact on climate that would replace the Kyoto Protocol.

Media reports quoted Kenber, policy director of The Climate Group, as saying that “if airlines do not propose something credible environmentally but also that works well for them economically, they will get saddled with some other option.”

Kenber said the Aviation Global Deal Group was hoping that other major carriers would join the coalition that talks were being held in this regard with many airlines in the United States, the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East.

The groups’ scheme recommends that countries agree to a global cap on aviation emissions, and that any scheme agreed upon must be integrated within a climate pact that would come into effect from 2013.

The ultimate aim, Kenber added, was to have the scheme adopted as one of the proposals when United Nations’ climate negotiators meet again in June 2009 in Bonn.

According to the 43-point proposal, presented by the Aviation Global Deal Group at the UN climate-change meet in Bonn, individual carriers would surrender allowances in proportion to the carbon content of their annual fuel purchases.

A body formed by the United Nations is to administer the system, including the auction of permits, Kenber said.

Experts on climate and aviation say that the aviation industry contributes about 2 per cent to global greenhouse-gas emissions and that the aviation industry’s share in pollution is expected to go up further.

Conservation groups like WWF complain that the aviation sector “is not doing enough” to deal with the growing share of greenhouse-gas pollution from aviation and that “the aviation industry must pay for its emissions like many other industries.”

According to the Association of Asia-Pacific Airlines (AAPA), the trade association of 17 scheduled international airlines based in the Asia-Pacific region and dealing with issues related to air pollution, emissions from global aviation are about 650 million tonnes of carbon dioxide annually.