The UK along with 190 other countries has secured a major global climate deal to combat aviation emissions. The deal was struck on 6 October 2016.
This is the first worldwide scheme to address emissions in any single sector. Under the deal, airlines will offset their emissions with reductions from other sectors and activities with the aim of delivering carbon neutral growth for the aviation sector from 2020.
It is the most significant global deal on climate since the Paris Agreement last year, when the world agreed to pursue efforts to keep the global temperature increase well below 2 degrees. As one of the two sectors not covered by Paris, it was critical that international aviation also took action. This agreement is a major step forward, and the UK has played an important part in delivering this.
The deal was reached at the 39th Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Montreal, following 3 years of challenging negotiations.
Speaking about the deal, Drew Hendry MP said:
“This is a landmark deal that will go a long way to tackle the issue of CO2 emissions from international aviation and will be particularly important in the context of UK airport expansion.
“The Tories continue to cite environmental concerns for delays to the – well overdue – decision on airport expansion, yet we see not action from them to actually tackle the issue. Time and time again calls from industry for investment in sustainable alternative fuels are ignored. Ludicrously, aviation fuels were even excluded from the Government’s Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation. Earlier this year British Airways had to scrap a £340m green fuels project as a result.
“While other countries make ground-breaking advancements in sustainable aviation, the UK continues to lag behind. As we heads towards a Tory hard Brexit, this Government will have no where left to hide and must now set out how they are going to achieve these targets.”