Ships, Planes Should Cut Emissions Up to 20%, EU Says
Oct. 21 (Bloomberg) -- The European Union proposed that theshipping and airline industries reduce greenhouse-gas emissionsby as much as 20 percent over the next decade as part of any newUnited Nations accord to fight global warming.
Ships would have to cut greenhouse gases by a fifth in 2020compared with 2005 and airlines would need to trim discharges by10 percent during the period under the EU proposal to the UN.European environment ministers endorsed the negotiating positionat a meeting today in Luxembourg.
The 27-nation EU is pressing the U.S., China and India toaccept a new UN treaty to counter the heat waves, storms andfloods tied to global warming. The UN aims at a December meetingin Copenhagen for an agreement that would succeed the KyotoProtocol after it expires in 2012.
“We must maintain momentum towards the December deadline”and seek an “ambitious deal,” said U.K. Energy and ClimateChange Secretary Ed Miliband. The Swedish government, currentholder of the EU’s rotating presidency, pushed through theproposal over resistance from maritime countries includingGreece, Cyprus and Malta.
Europe wants the world to tackle transport emissions afterthe 1997 Kyoto treaty excluded the maritime and aviationindustries from reduction targets for greenhouse gases includingcarbon dioxide, the main such pollutant. Last year, the EUapproved legislation that will cap CO2 from domestic and foreignairlines serving European airports as of 2012.
Fossil Fuels
The EU law will add air carriers to the European emissions-trading system, which imposes CO2 quotas on energy andmanufacturing companies and requires those exceeding theirlimits to buy spare permits from businesses that emit less.
The bloc, which accounts for 25 percent of the world’sshipping fleet, has so far held off imposing similar curbs onmaritime emissions in order to allow for a coordinated globalapproach. Environmental groups hailed the new EU initiative.
“We welcome the first proposals for global targets toreduce carbon emissions within the aviation and shippingsectors,” said the European Federation for Transport andEnvironment. The World Wildlife Fund called the plan “asignificant step forward.”
‘Market-Based Instruments’
As part of their initiative, the EU environment ministersurged the use of “market-based instruments” worldwide to cutgreenhouse gases from ships and planes. The ministers said theseinstruments should be developed within the InternationalMaritime Organization and the International Civil AviationOrganization.
Europe’s goal at Copenhagen is to make fossil-fuel use morecostly and turn the European emissions-trading system into thecornerstone of a global market. In that context, the EU ispressing wealthy economies to commit to reductions in greenhousegases by 2020 and offer aid to poor countries.
In return, Europe wants developing nations such as China tocommit to limiting emissions growth in 2020 to 15 percent to 30percent below “business as usual.”
The EU is already on course to cut such pollution by afifth in 2020 compared with 1990 and is willing to deepen itsreduction target to 30 percent over the period provided otherrich economies follow suit.
At their meeting today, the environment ministers held outthe prospect of a 2050 EU emissions-reduction target of 80percent to 95 percent compared with 1990. Such a goal depends oncuts “by developed countries as a group,” the ministers said.
To contact the reporter on this story:Jonathan Stearns in Luxembourg at jstearns2@bloomberg.net
Last Updated: October 21, 2009 10:35 EDTSource: Bloomberg
