Pollution Accord Is Set for Global Flights, but Tasks Remain

ICAO President Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, center,
 at the opening of the October Montreal
 conference, where an accord was set to limit
greenhouse gas emissions from international flights.

The great and the good of world aviation gathered in Montreal last month to do something that seemed impossible even a couple of years ago. They agreed to cap greenhouse gas emissions from international flights.

The pact — the first climate change agreement to apply worldwide to a specific sector, one that produces the equivalent annual carbon dioxide output as that of Germany — was greeted with almost universal support.

John Kerry, secretary of state of the United States, called the aviation deal “unprecedented.”

Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, council president of the International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations body that will oversee the agreement, acknowledged negotiations had been tough, but added that almost all nations now had a “practical agreement and consensus on this issue.”

Despite the backslapping, much still needs to be resolved before the 15-year aviation accord comes into force beginning in 2021. The first six years of the deal will be voluntary.

Read The New York Times story - “Pollution Accord Is Set for Global Flights, but Tasks Remain.”