Air and sea transport must start trading carbon, say Europe's finance ministers - Energy & Environmental News

Post Date: 18 May 2011

European finance ministers meeting in Brussels yesterday called for international shipping and aviation greenhouse gas emissions to be included in a global carbon pricing system.
In a decision immediately hailed by Oxfam's climate change adviser Lies Craeynest as a “double win", they said that this would become “a potential source of revenues that would also generate the price signal necessary to efficiently achieve emission reductions from these sectors".
The EU is already resolute that aviation will be included in its Emissions Trading Scheme after 2012, despite opposition registered by at least 120 countries at an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) meeting last October.
The finance ministers issued a statement on climate finance which said that although raising the $100 billion per year by 2020 to tackle climate change - as agreed by world leaders in Copenhagen 2009 - is challenging, it is feasible.
They noted that €7.2 billion will be available up to the end of 2012 in Europe, and challenged other countries to come up with their share of the cash.
One of the mechanisms for raising this cash must be a “robust carbon market" to drive “the carbon price necessary for low carbon investment to achieve global mitigation objectives in an efficient way".
They acknowledged that public finance is a particularly important source for developing countries striving to meet their reduction targets, that is difficult to provide in the current economic climate.
It says therefore that “the carbon pricing of global aviation and maritime transportation is a potential source of revenues that would also generate the price signal necessary to efficiently achieve emission reductions from these sectors".
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) and ICAO must therefore "develop without delay a global policy framework that avoids competitive distortions or carbon leakage".

Complete Story at:
http://www.eaem.co.uk/news/air-and-sea-transport-must-start-trading-carbon-say-europes-finance-ministers