EU, Mexico, and Marshall Islands call on International Civil Aviation Organisation to build on Paris Agreement success and 'make history again'
The EU, Mexico, and the Marshall Islands came together last week in an attempt to revive the 'high ambition coalition' that proved so effective at last year's Paris Summit ahead of next month's crucial meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).
The meeting of the UN-backed group in Montreal is expected to approve plans for a new Global Market-Based Measure (GMBM) designed to curb greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation sector.
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Commissioners and ministers from Brussels, Mexico, and the Marshall Islands released a letter late last week calling on the ICAO to build on the work of the so-called high ambition coalition, which helped deliver the Paris Agreement, and now "make history again" by securing "an ambitious and robust GMBM, with broad participation and the widest possible emission coverage".
The letter represents a boost to hopes ICAO will deliver a wide-ranging new emissions offsetting scheme for the aviation industry and will fuel speculation that some countries are continuing to push for a more ambitious policy package than the current draft proposals.
Under current proposals the GMBM offsetting scheme would be voluntary for the first six years.
Singapore and Indonesia have signalled they would join the scheme from the start, effectively imposing a small carbon levy on flights, while the US and China issued a statement at this month's G20 confirming they expected to be "early participants" in the scheme. The letter suggests the EU, Mexico and Marshall Islands will also sign up to the new market.
However, reports suggest Brazil is planning to delay its involvement until the GMBM becomes mandatory in 2027 and a number of other large aviation markets are understood to be wary of the new proposals.
Meanwhile, a raft of green NGOs remain implacably opposed to carbon offsetting-based proposals, arguing the approach has failed to address fundamental flaws relating to the extent to which emission reduction projects deliver promised savings.
The letter from the EU, Mexico, and Marshall Islands argues the new scheme should only focus on offsets with "environmental integrity" and calls for all major aviation routes to be covered by the scheme from day one.
"As participants in the High Ambition Coalition, the European Union, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and Mexico encourage as many ICAO states as possible, in particular all major aviation states, to join from the beginning of the scheme, and to declare their intention to opt in as soon as possible, and no later than at the Assembly," it states. "Together, we must ensure that the Assembly achieves the highest possible participation in the first phase. In Montreal numbers will matter!
"Achieving this outcome at the ICAO Assembly will require as many countries as possible through their relevant ministries, to declare their intent to participate in the GMBM from the start and to participate actively in the ICAO Assembly."
It also calls for the ICAO to emulate the Paris Agreement by introducing a "a robust review mechanism" which is able to adapt the GMBM over time, in line with wider climate objectives and the long term temperatures goal of the Paris Agreement.
The intervention comes as the board of the UN's existing carbon offset scheme, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), published a series of proposals ahead of the next annual climate summit in Morocco in November.
The board is calling on developing countries to make wider use of the CDM to help deliver the national climate action plans they submitted under the Paris Agreement and is also keen to see CDM processes for verifying emission reductions used in the growing market for green bonds and securities.
In addition, the scheme could yet play a complementary role to ICAo's push for aviation emission reductions. The board last week issued a call for governments to encourage aviation and maritime companies to commit to emission reductions in their operations, including through the immediate voluntary cancellation of certified emission reduction (CER) credits.
"The success of the CDM has been as a market-based tool incentivizing projects on the ground, creating saleable emission reduction credits; but, it's much, much more than that," said CDM Executive Board Chair Eduardo Calvo in a statement. "This mechanism can be used to measure emissions, tally reductions and transparently report those emission reductions, all essential tasks to ensure real reductions and real progress on climate change."
The latest developments also come as the UN signaled it expects to see at least 20 more countries ratify the Paris Agreement at an event at the UN headquarters in New York this week, further fueling hopes the treaty could come into force this year.
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