Tag: T&E

 According to the latest draft deal, the aviation and shipping sectors are set to be exempt from targeted CO2 emissions cuts in the December Paris climate agreement, T&E reports This is an irresponsible U-turn, say environmental groups Seas At Risk and Transport & Environment. CO2 emissions from the two sectors are set to grow by up to 250% by 2050, making attempts to limit global warming to 2°C all but impossible. The latest draft Paris deal removes previous calls for aviation and shipping CO2 reduction targets. Both international sectors are not covered by national targets in the Paris agreement. Aviation is responsible for 5% of global warming with shipping emitting 3% of global CO2. Even so, last week outgoing IMO secretary-general, Koji Sekimizu, argued publicly against an overall cap on ship emissions, saying it would inhibit world trade.John Maggs, senior policy advisor at Seas At Risk, said: “Excluding shipping from Paris opens up a fatal flaw in the global strategy to tackle climate change. As the IMO secretary-general’s recent remarks show, without a clear signal from the UNFCCC, the IMO is incapable of making the necessary decisions to ensure shipping takes a fair share of the burden of reducing emissions.”Proposals from the least ...

 Transport & Environment reports that the heads of 7 of the 8 political groups of the European Parliament's environment committee have written to the Environment Ministers of the 28 EU countries urging them to include international shipping and aviation in a global climate deal at Paris. The heads of the political groups on the Environment Committee said:  "To promote increased climate ambition from ICAO and IMO, like all the other sectors of the global economy, aviation and international shipping require an emissions reduction target. There is no reasonable excuse to continue exempting these two economy sectors from the global policy framework. Aviation and shipping need to contribute in the same way that is required of all UNFCCC Parties, large and small." The Environment Ministers of the 28 European member states will be meeting on 18 September to finalise the EU position for COP21. Sotiris Raptis, clean shipping officer at sustainable transport group Transport & Environment, commented:  "It's simply fair to demand from two economic sectors with emissions the size of Germany and South Korea to reduce CO2 emissions in line with keeping the global temperature increase below 2 degrees celsius. The IMO and ICAO have been procrastinating so far. The time for action has come."The European Parliament called last week for the establishment of an EU 2030 emissions reduction target ...