The states represented at the United Nations reached an agreement on Friday to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050 in global civil aviation, often blamed for its role in the climate crisis.
Representatives of the 193 states gathered for the assembly of the organization, whose headquarters is in Montreal, reached “a historic agreement on an ambitious long-term collective goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050”, tweeted ICAO.
The latter clarified that she “continues to plead for States to show much more ambition and investment so that aviation is completely decarbonized by 2050 or before”.
“Excellent result”
“It’s an excellent result,” said a European diplomatic source to AFP, who said that “only four countries, including China, had expressed reservations.”
Today responsible for 2.5 to 3% of global CO2 emissions, the aviation sector is proving difficult to switch to renewable energies, even if the aeronautics industry and energy companies are working hard on it. The plane concentrates criticism because it is seen as a means of transport reserved for the richest. In addition, 50% of air emissions come from the 1% of travelers who travel the most.
The International Air Transport Association (Iata) said it was “strongly encouraged” by the vote at ICAO, which comes a year after this spokesperson for companies had endorsed the same principle at a general meeting.
“A Turning Point”
Iata Director General Willie Walsh now expects “much stronger public policies in favor of decarbonization, such as incentives to increase the production capacity of sustainable aviation fuels”, of non-origin fuel, the main lever for reducing emissions in the aviation sector according to the companies.
According to Iata, creating carbon-free aviation represents 1550 billion dollars of investment between 2021 and 2050.
“The global aviation community welcomes this iconic agreement,” said the chief executive of Airports Council International (ACI World).
“This is a turning point in efforts to decarbonize the aviation sector, with governments and industry now heading in the same direction, within a common regulatory framework,” added Luis Felipe de Oliveira, quoted in a press release from its organization bringing together 1,950 airport platforms in 185 countries.
Non-binding agreement
But the agreement is still far from satisfying environmental NGOs who regret its weakness and the fact that it is not legally binding.
“This is not the time for the Paris agreement for aviation”, lamented in particular Jo Dardenne, of the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E). “Let’s not pretend that a non-binding target will get aviation back to zero,” she added. Same disappointment regarding the adjustment of its carbon compensation mechanism (Corsia) which was reviewed by the ICAO assembly.
During the ten days of its assembly, the ICAO also decided to exclude Russia from the governance council of the organization in an unprecedented sanction vote.
Moscow is accused of breaking international rules by registering hundreds of leased planes at home rather than returning them, as required by sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine in February.
The general meeting was the first since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, which brought air to its knees: in 2021, the companies found only half of their 4.5 billion passengers in 2019, a slight rebound from the 60% year-on-year drop in 2020. The sector expects to carry 83% of its customers from three years ago in 2022 and return to profitability globally next year.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / afp