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Carbon plan proposal possibly this week

BARCELONA - The International Air Transport Association, or Iata, may propose measures to cut emissions from airlines, a step that could help a global deal on tackling pollution by the industry, a senior European Union official said.

The Iata is expected to announce its initiative next week at its annual general meeting in Cape Town, South Africa, said Jos Delbeke, director-general for climate at the European Commission. The aviation industry is seeking an international solution to curb greenhouse gases from airlines after it condemned the inclusion of foreign flights in the EU emissions-trading system last year.

“I’m going to be in Cape Town [this] week where the Iata will make a number of important decisions on carbon reductions,” Delbeke said in an interview in Barcelona. “We don’t know the detail of it, but the industry may be more forthcoming compared to what we anticipated two years ago.”

After the expansion of the EU cap-and-trade program abroad caused industry and diplomatic reverberations in countries from Russia and China to Mexico, Europe decided to defer the imposition of carbon curbs on flights into and out of the bloc. The aim of the freeze was to facilitate talks on a global deal to reduce pollution from airlines in the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organisation, or Icao.

“There is such a wide array of measures that countries may take so the private industry would like to make a proposal that could then be input to the Icao process,” Delbeke said in the interview during the Carbon Expo conference. “It could be quite a significant contribution by the private sector to what the Icao could do.”

About 700 aviation leaders will gather in Cape Town for the Iata meeting and the World Air Transport Summit on June 2-4, it said. They will discuss issues including environment, safety, distribution and finance.