UK to seek pact on shipping and aviation pollution at climate talks
5th December 2007
A recent Gaurdian article reports on the current United Nations Climate Change event being held in Bali this week.
Britain is to push for pollution from the global aviation and shipping industries to be included in a new international agreement on climate change at a meeting in Bali, beginning today.
Action on greenhouse gas emissions from international travel and trade is among eight points that British and European negotiators intend to pursue at the meeting, which aims to set the framework for a global treaty to replace the Kyoto protocol when it runs out in 2012. The two-week Bali meeting will not produce such a deal, but officials hope it will launch serious negotiations in time for an agreement in two or three years’ time, as well as set out the likely scope and timetable.
Kyoto does not include carbon emissions from international aviation and shipping. They are usually excluded from national calculations, including Britain’s new climate change bill, which aims to cut carbon pollution 60% by 2050.
The first week of the talks will aim to iron out differences between countries before senior politicians arrive next week. Green groups say the Bali meeting, the latest in an annual sequence of climate summits held by the UN, is the most important since the talks in Kyoto in 1997.
