ICAO is not committed enough / Careful consideration of consequences
"Very modest" called Peter Liese, the European Parliament's rapporteur for the inclusion of aviation in the EU Emission Trading Scheme, the results from the General Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization. "Vis a vis the compromise text of the ICAO Council the text which was now agreed is weakened a lot. Although there is now finally a decision that by 2016 ICAO will install a global market based measure for the reduction of international aviation emissions which comes into force 2020 the text was weakened, and if and how it comes to an agreement in 2020, is in the stars. Unfortunately, we have no guarantee that the system will be introduced in 2020 and that the benefit for the environment is substantial. There are too many ifs and buts. Nevertheless, this is a first step which was achieved only by the pressure of the EU. Alone, ICAO would not have made it so far, because of the industry domination of third countries' positions. Therefore the EU has to keep the pressure high", said Liese.
He promised to analyse the results and the consequences carefully. "In our current law, it is not possible to suspend the emissions trading for international aviation until 2020. We must now carefully analyse the legal and political options we have to continue our system in a modified form. Not only the text of the resolution is crucial. In my estimation, the European Parliament will not agree that until 2020 we only cover intra-European flights, and this is not even complete,. The inclusion of all flights taking off and landing in Europe, for the part that they travel in European airspace is indispensable. This is a matter of fairness against European airlines and their competitive situation and the environment. If the European Parliament does not agree with the Council by April on a new legislative text, legislation as originally planned will come into force for intercontinental flights taking off and landing in Europe. This pressure medium remains", concluded Liese.