25 August 2008: In a statement to the third Session of the
Ad hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention
(AWG-LCA 3), which met in Accra, Ghana, from 21-27 August 2008, the
International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) addressed the various
approaches and options under which greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from
international civil aviation can be effectively addressed.

ICAO noted that its
mission includes minimizing the effects of international civil aviation on the
environment through cooperation among all parties. Stressing the global nature
of emissions from international aviation, ICAO stated that it already provides
an official and effective international forum to develop globally harmonized
environmental standards, procedures and practices. It recalled that the
Organization has already successfully increased the energy efficiency of the
aviation sector and developed policies and mitigating measures that take into
account the specificities of developing and developed countries. The statement
underscores ICAO’s position in ensuring environmental sustainability as well as
the safety, security and efficiency of the global air transport system.
The
Organization recommended adopting a global framework encompassing a basket of
measures of a technological, operational and market-based nature to deal with
the specific realities of all parties. ICAO outlined its recent climate change
activities, namely the: Carbon Calculator; first “Aviation and Carbon Markets”
workshop; and second meeting of ICAO’s Group on International Aviation and
Climate Change, whose recommendations will be forwarded to the fifteenth
Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC, in December 2009. In this context,
ICAO highlighted its cooperation with the UNFCCC and the preparation of an
information paper and the organization of a side event on the sustained efforts
of international aviation to reduce GHG emissions and their future management.
[The Statement]