Singapore Airlines and other long-haul Asian carriers are keeping their fingers crossed that the United Nations can forge a consensus on how to tackle the industry's carbon emissions.
If members of the UN's International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) gathered in Montreal, Canada over the next two weeks do not see eye to eye, it could pave the way for unilateral enforcement action by the European Union and several countries including Australia.
The EU's plan will harm long-haul carriers like SIA and Cathay Pacific the most.
In 2008, the EU spoke of its intention to charge airlines flying in and out of Europe for carbon emissions by adding aviation to the bloc's market-based carbon trading scheme.
Airlines will have to keep to a stipulated amount of carbon emissions or buy extra units from the carbon trading market.
Charges would be based on carbon emitted during the entire flight, instead of just over Europe, which effectively penalises long-haul carriers like SIA.
After an uproar by airlines and countries, most notably the United States, China, India and Russia, the EU backed down, temporarily.
In November last year, it agreed not to extend the scheme to flights starting or ending outside the bloc's air space, to give ICAO time to get its act together.
The concession, referred to as "Stop the Clock", is not a permanent deferment, said industry think-tank, Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
In a recent report, the centre quoted a spokesman for Ms Connie Hedegaard, the European climate action commissioner, as saying: "This (ICAO assembly) is a multilateral negotiation where you give and take.
"Only in return for a global deal, the EU has offered to continue emissions curbs for intra-European flights as well as the part of international flights covered by regional airspace up to 2020."
Aviation currently accounts for 2 per cent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
Over the years, the industry has invested in more fuel-efficient planes and research on cleaner alternative fuels.
But the general agreement inside and outside the industry is that more needs to be done to ensure long-term environmental sustainability.
It will be a challenge to get the 191 ICAO member states, including Singapore, gathered at the body's 38th Assembly until Oct 4, to sing the same tune.
The issues are complex. Should regulation be for airlines or states? Should there be a different approach for developing and developed nations?
Several options are being considered. They include a mandatory offsetting scheme, where all airlines buy carbon credits from other industries to offset emissions for growth.
The UN is also considering a global version of the EU scheme which gives airlines a stipulated amount of carbon emissions based on their flight networks, with the option of paying for more.
A framework for countries to implement their own market-based measures is also being worked on in the event that no global agreement is reached.
ICAO must move decisively to take a united stand. If it does not, the EU will step in and potentially provoke fresh protests from airlines and governments.
The last time it pushed, China protested by delaying ordering planes from European maker Airbus.
Carriers like SIA, which are already struggling with persistently high oil prices and weakness in the global economy, are hoping that the carbon emission conundrum will not further choke off the industry's growth.
SOURCE
No comments:
Post a Comment