Airlines 'to halve CO2 by 2050'

2009-09-22 08:34

London - The aviation industry on Tuesday will make a dramatic pledge to slash carbon dioxide emissions in half by 2050, as key climate change talks get underway at the United Nations, a report said.

British Airways chief executive Willie Walsh will unveil an agreement between airlines, airports and aircraft companies to cut emissions to 50% below 2005 levels by 2050, the Guardian said.

The move, to be presented to the UN forum on climate change in New York, will force up air fares and spark a green technology race among aircraft manufacturers, according to the newspaper.

"International aviation emissions were not included in the Kyoto Protocol 12 years ago. Now we have a chance to rectify that omission, and we must seize it," Walsh will tell UN delegates on Tuesday.

"Our proposals represent the most environmentally effective and practical means of reducing aviation's carbon impact.

"They are the best option for the planet and we urge the UN to adopt them."

Members of the global airline body, the International Air Transport Association, have also pledged to make all industry growth carbon neutral by 2020 and to cut carbon emissions by 1.5% per year over the next decade.

Higher fares

Airlines would also leave the EU emissions trading scheme, which they are due to join in 2012, and would buy carbon permits in a global market, the Guardian said.

Walsh said earlier this year that a global scheme would add about three billion pounds to industry costs which would be passed on to passengers through higher fares.

If accepted by the United Nations, the agreement will be placed on the agenda for Copenhagen in December.

UN-led negotiations are tasked with forging a treaty in Copenhagen to curb the heat-trapping emissions that drive global warming, and threaten poor countries with increased drought, flood and rising sea levels.

Many airlines fear they will be cast as the villains if Copenhagen fails, even though they are trying to cut emissions from air travel.

Air transport currently contributes around 2% of global CO2 emissions, according to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

But international air travel has not been included in previous deals to regulate emissions, such as the Kyoto Protocol.

- SAPA