The International Civil Aviation Organization agreed today to create a new Group on International Aviation and Climate Change composed of senior government officials. The Group’s mandate will be to recommend an aggressive ICAO Programme of Action on International Aviation and Climate Change. The action was taken at ICAO’s 36th Assembly, which concluded last week (28th September).

The Programme will formulate an “implementation framework” consisting of strategies and measures that Contracting States of ICAO can use to achieve emissions reductions. It will identify fuel efficiency goals and means of measuring progress.

Options to be considered include voluntary measures, technological advances in both aircraft and ground-based equipment, more efficient operational measures, use of biofuels, improvements in air traffic management, positive economic incentives and market-based measures.

After receiving the Programme of Action, ICAO will unveil it at a high-level meeting. Implementing the Programme will produce significant improvements in the environmental performance of international aviation, delegates believe.

The Assembly agreed that market-based options are valuable tools for addressing aircraft emissions. A majority of the delegations felt, however, that States should not apply emissions trading systems to the airlines of other States except pursuant to mutual agreement.

“The Assembly recognized the tremendous work of ICAO over the past few years in mitigating the impact of aviation on the environment. By agreeing to an aggressive Programme of Action, ICAO has begun a vital new chapter in its long and distinguished history. The level and importance of ICAO’s achievement over the years in aviation safety will now be replicated with regard to aviation’s impact on climate change,” said Jeffrey N. Shane, Under Secretary for Policy at the United States Department of

Transportation and President of the ICAO Assembly.