Page 15 - European Energy Innovation - Summer 2016 publication
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Summer 2016 European Energy Innovation 15
AVIATION
Traffic Management, and Clean Sky CO2 STANDARD FOR AIRCRAFT number of our key partners to invite
for the development of breakthrough In February, an agreement was them to support us.
technologies to significantly increase the reached within ICAO to set the first-
environmental performance of aircrafts. ever global CO2 standard for aircraft. As European Transport Commissioner,
European experts played a central pushing the EU’s decarbonisation
Aviation is international by nature, and role in brokering this deal – as had agenda forwards is one of my first
the decarbonisation efforts must be already been the case at the COP21 in priorities. Climate change is real, and
pursued globally. That is why the EU is Paris. The standard aims at setting the the decisions we take today are going
coordinating actions with other countries maximum amount of CO2 emissions to impact our generation and the
and regions in the world. For instance, that commercial aircrafts are allowed ones to come, in the EU and beyond.
the comprehensive aviation agreements, to release per kilometre, for both new Aviation is a global business therefore
which the Commission negotiates on and in-production aircraft, which will be we need global solutions. I therefore
behalf of the entire European Union, reviewed over time. By 2040, it could invite all parties to come on-board. l
allow us to promote green policies as save up to 650 million tons of CO2
part of the negotiations. The European emissions. The technical deal now has
Commission has already concluded to be formally endorsed by the ICAO
eight such agreements, seven more are General Assembly this autumn. Once
still being negotiated and, as part of the done, this would be an important step
Aviation Strategy for Europe, we want towards our sustainability objective. It
to negotiate new ones with important will also create further momentum for
aviation partners, such as China, Turkey, the work on the GMBM.
the Gulf Region, ASEAN, Mexico and
Armenia. GLOBAL MARKET-BASED
MECHANISM
However, only through a global and The objective of the GMBM is to set up
legally-binding agreement can we a global mandatory system which can
address the sustainability challenged offset CO2 emissions from international
posed by aviation. Last December in aviation and enable carbon neutral
Paris the European Union fought until growth as of 2020. The EU has already
the last moment to include international put in place a domestic market-based
aviation in the scope of the COP21 mechanism, the Emissions Trading
deal. Despite all our efforts this did System. However, a global system is
not succeed, but with 191 Member the only way to effectively decarbonise
States, ICAO is now the right forum to the sector. In 2013, the ICAO Assembly
make this possible. The EU is currently committed to develop a GMBM
working closely with ICAO on two by 2016. Discussions are ongoing
global measures: the development of within ICAO and the Commission is
a global CO2 standard for aircraft, and pushing for an ambitious outcome at
the creation of a Global Market-Based the General Assembly this autumn.
Mechanism (GMBM). Throughout 2016, I will be meeting a
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