Day 7 at Climate Talks: GHG emissions from aviation and maritime transport
L-R: Miguel Palomares, International Maritime Organization; André Jol, European Environment Agency; Marit Viktoria Pettersen, Ministry of the Environment, Norway; Stefan Seum, Stefan Seum Consulting; and Jakob Graichen, Öko-Institute.
Marit Viktoria Pettersen, Ministry of the Environment, Norway, noted that GHG emissions from international aviation and shipping are growing faster than in any other sector, yet are not covered under the Kyoto Protocol. She stressed that under Article 2.2. of the Kyoto Protocol, Annex I parties should work through the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to reduce emissions but that these organizations have yet to agree on a regulatory framework or mechanism.
André Jol, European Environment Agency, presented key conclusions from the October 2007 Oslo Technical Workshop on Emissions from Aviation and Marine Transport, including that: no significant technical issues related to emissions inventory monitoring and reporting are unsolvable; and inclusion of aviation and transport in a future regime is mainly a political issue.
Miguel Palomares, IMO, emphasized the importance of international shipping to the global economy. He said a Steering Committee is updating the 2000 IMO GHG Study and has established a working group to consider technical, operational and market-based approaches to reducing GHG emissions, with results expected by mid-2009.
Pettersen then presented Norway’s proposed “cap-charge-trade” system for international maritime transport.
Stefan Seum, Stefan Seum Consulting, explained how he applied ecological effectiveness, economic efficiency, fairness and justice, administrative burden, and political feasibility criteria to assess the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice’s (SBSTA) options on national allocation schemes for international maritime transport. He described reasons why a national allocation scheme is not feasible, and discussed three possible sectoral approaches, including the Norwegian proposal.
Jakob Graichen, Öko-Institute, outlined national allocation and sectoral approaches for including aviation in a post-2012 regime. He explained that the feasibility of starting in a single region and later expanding to a global level was examined for each approach. He said SBSTA’s options by fuel and by route are possible for a national allocation approach and discussed sectoral approaches.
Participants discussed: alternative fuels for maritime and aviation transport; how proposals would affect other transport modes; and perverse incentives that could result from differentiated controls for Annex I and non-Annex I countries.
More information
http://www.iisd.ca/ymb/sdosl
http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/md
http://www.eea.europa.eu
http://www.imo.org
http://www.oeko.de/home/dok/546.php
Contacts
Marit Viktoria Pettersen <maritviktoria.pettersen@md.dep.no>
André Jol <andre.jol@eea.europa.eu>
Miguel Palomares <mpalomares@imo.org>
Stefan Seum <steseum@comcast.net>
Jakob Graichen <j.graichen@oeko.de>
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