Nedumbassery: Aiming to achieve the ambitious targets set to combat climate change, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has called upon the Second Ministerial Conference on Global Environment and Energy in Transport to support its commitments in driving aviation's responsible approach towards combating the phenomenon.
At the forefront
“Aviation is at the forefront of industries taking a responsible approach on climate change. In 2009, aviation emitted 625 million tonnes of carbon—equal to 2 per cent of manmade carbon dioxide. We are working together to reduce that with the cooperation of governments,” said its Director General and CEO Giovanni Bisignani at a recently concluded event in Rome.
The association also held the view that the airlines, airports, air navigation service providers and manufacturers were committed to work together to improve fuel efficiency, capping net emissions with carbon-neutral growth, and cutting net emissions in half by 2050 compared to the levels that were recorded in 2005 .
The association said the conference was being held at a critical time as it provided a unique opportunity for the air transport industry to remind governments of the industry's proactive approach to reducing emission, just one month after the ICAO Assembly and one month before the United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change meeting held in Cancun.
Agreement
Upholding the government-level agreement at ICAO which provided for developing a global framework for economic measures, it urged the governments to take a stake in delivering emission reduction by working with industry to provide the tools to achieve their goals.
According to the association, aviation would arrive in Cancun with its homework done, under the leadership of ICAO and would seek support from the governments to achieve the industry's targets with improvements in air traffic management and the legal and fiscal structures needed for the commercialisation of sustainable bio fuels.
Framework
Moreover, it would also ask the governments to keep focused on developing a global framework for economic measures and reject ineffective regional schemes and take advantage of aviation's role as an economic catalyst, apart from promoting aviation's achievements as a role model.
Meanwhile, the IATA also held that the prospects for the air transport sector have improved tremendously as the industry would return to a global profit of 8.9 billion dollars in the year.
Drop
However, this would well drop to a margin of 0.9 per cent at 5.3 billion dollars in the proceeding year, the association added.
