International negotiations on emissions from aviation sector
Student name: Ms Abha Tewary
Guide: Dr Manish Kumar Shrivastava
Year of completion: 2016
Host Organisation: The Energy and Resource Institute (TERI), New Delhi
Supervisor (Host Organisation): Dr Prodipto Ghosh
Abstract: Aviation has the highest growth rates of all modes of transport. It is responsible for 12% of CO2
emissions from all transport sources. With the growth of aviation industry, increase in aircraft
fleet and increasing passenger traffic, the related emissions from aviation sector are only going
to go up. The aviation industry in many countries is heavily subsidized wherein the airports and
airlines are given tax exemptions and aviation turbine fuel is also exempted from tax, unlike
other modes of transport. Another fact is that aviation sector provides direct, indirect and other
employment to many, facilitates international investment, promotes global trade, tourism and is
the only viable mode of transport for long distance travel.
Aviation sector being global in nature, currently there is no regulation in place to address
emissions from aviation sector. To understand the complexity of aviation emissions and why no
concrete regulatory mechanism could emerge, it is necessary to understand the climate change
regimes and negotiations at the international level; who the stakeholders are; what efforts have
been made and what the current scenario is. UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol had given the
mandate of addressing emissions from bunker fuels to ICAO; however there had been more than
a decade of inaction by ICAO to come up with any measure to address climate change. This lack
of collective action by the international regime institutions exhibits the influence of industry
groups on the process and also the unwillingness on part of member states to address a sector
which promises economic gains however performs poor on environmental side.
Recently CO2 efficiency standards have been finalized by ICAO for consideration. Also ICAO
intends to negotiate Global Market-based-mechanism (GMBM) for international aviation. One of
the key issues related to the GMBM is its distributional impact particularly how it will affect
carriers based primarily in developing countries. With such complexities, the provisions for
transparency mechanisms and cooperative approach under the Paris Agreement can be
negotiated to provide scope to cover bunker emissions.
Key words: international negotiations, aviation emissions, climate policy, bunker fuel, regulation
