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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

U.N. agreement reached on aircraft climate-change emissions

By Joan Lowy Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The United Nations’ aviation arm overwhelmingly ratified an agreement Thursday to control global warming emissions from international airline flights, the first climate-change pact to set worldwide limits on a single industry.

The agreement, adopted overwhelmingly by the 191-nation International Civil Aviation Organization at a meeting in Montreal, sets airlines’ carbon emissions in 2020 as the upper limit of what carriers are allowed to discharge. Airlines that exceed that limit in future years, as most are expected to do, will have to offset their emissions growth by buying credits from other industries and projects that limit greenhouse gas emissions.

Countries must still act on their own to put the agreement’s limits into effect. Adoption of the aviation agreement comes one day after the number of countries signing onto a landmark climate-change accord reached in Paris last December passed the threshold for implementing the accord.

Secretary of State John Kerry called the aviation agreement “unprecedented” and said it builds on more than a decade of work by the U.S. and other nations to reduce aircraft emissions.

“It is another significant step in the global movement to take ambitious action to address climate change exemplified by yesterday’s action to cross the threshold for the Paris Agreement to enter into force,” he said in a statement.

The first phase of the airline agreement, which is voluntary, covers 2021 to 2027. Participation becomes mandatory from 2028 through 2035. Some countries were still trying to decide whether to participate in the voluntary phase.

Full compliance with the 15-year agreement would reduce carbon that would otherwise be emitted by 2.5 billion tons, according to an Environmental Defense Fund calculation. That’s roughly equivalent to taking 35 million cars off the road every year for the life of the agreement.

So far, 65 countries, including the United States and China, have indicated they will participate. That includes the European Union’s 44-nation aviation conference. However, Russia doesn’t plan to participate in the voluntary phase, and India expressed reservations with portions of the pact.

The agreement has the backing of the airline industry even though it could cost an estimated $5.3 billion to $23.9 billion a year by 2035. Airlines spent $181 billion on fuel last year.

Airlines that keep their emissions down through more fuel efficient planes and aircraft operations will spend less on carbon credits. But since aviation is growing rapidly, emissions growth is expected to far outstrip increased efficiencies.

The deal applies only to international flights, which account for about 60 percent of aviation. Emissions from domestic airline flights fall under the Paris accord, which goes into effect next month. That accord commits rich and poor countries to take action to curb the rise in global temperatures that is melting glaciers, raising sea levels and shifting rainfall patterns. Governments must present national plans to reduce emissions to limit global temperature rise less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).