Top airlines want aviation emissions in climate pact

Four leading airlines called last Thursday for aviation emissions to be included in a broader climate pact, after growing criticism from green groups that the sector is not doing enough to fight global warming.

The move is the first step by the world's airlines, which account for around two per cent of global pollution, to steer the debate on an emissions pact towards a deal they are happy with, rather than having one imposed on them.

Air France/KLM, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Virgin Atlantic and airport operator BAA issued the call in Hong Kong and outlined a series of principles a new global deal for aviation must adhere to.

Conservation groups such as WWF say aviation has not been doing enough to tackle the sector's growing share of greenhouse gas pollution and must pay for its emissions like many other industries.

Emissions from international aviation comprise about two per cent of total carbon dioxide (CO2 ) pollution from burning fossil fuels and deforestation and are expected to keep rising as economies and populations grow.

Green groups and governments say airlines should be part of emissions trading schemes.

"This is the first time a group of airlines has got together to call for aviation to be included in a climate change treaty," Dominic Purvis of Cathay Pacific told Reuters.

"We're contributing to climate change and we need to play our part," said Purvis, the airline's general manager for environmental affairs.

Nations meet at the end of the year in the Danish capital Copenhagen to try to agree on a broader climate pact that replaces the Kyoto Protocol, the United Nations' main weapon to fight global warming. Kyoto's first phase ends in 2012.

The idea is to find a way for developing nations to sign up to emissions curbs and to include aviation and shipping, which together make up 5 per cent of man-made CO2 emissions, a fifth of which come from US emissions of 6 billion tonnes a year.

The United Nations' International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has been working for more than a decade to develop a global scheme to tackle aviation emissions.