Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Britain is asking countries to push for a global target to cut aviation emissions to levels compatible with the Paris Agreement, under a deal due to be announced at the COP26 climate change summit, according to a draft document seen by Reuters.
As COP26 host, Britain is rallying countries to join an "International Aviation Climate Ambition Coalition" and agree to push the United Nations' aviation agency to set a long-term target to reduce emissions from international flights.
Countries that sign the deal would commit to supporting the adoption by the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) of an "ambitious long-term aspirational goal that is compatible with net-zero global emissions by 2050," the draft said.
The aim is to build momentum for ICAO to set tougher climate targets when its nearly 200 member countries meet in September 2022.
The Paris Agreement does not explicitly address international aviation emissions, but commits countries to limit global temperature increases to 2 C this century and aim for 1.5 C.
To meet the 1.5 C goal, which would avoid the worst impacts of climate change, scientists say combined global CO2 emissions from all sectors would need to be reduced to net zero by 2050.
Montreal-based ICAO is facing pressure to toughen its climate goals. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres this month blasted the agency's plans as too weak and urged it to set "more ambitious and credible targets."
"Current commitments are not aligned with the 1.5-degree goal of the Paris Agreement. In fact, they are more consistent with warming way above 3 degrees," Guterres said, referring to both ICAO and the UN shipping agency's climate aims.
ICAO sits at the centre of a global system of widely agreed norms, but is not a regulator in its own right.
The U.K.-led declaration would also commit countries to try to "strengthen" ICAO's flagship scheme for addressing international aviation emissions, known as CORSIA.
The U.K. government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
An ICAO spokesman said it "encourages all initiatives by states to enhance the sustainability of their aviation sectors."
The draft did not specify which countries would join the coalition, but it said the United States had been involved in the talks.
"A broad range of states in other world regions have been contacted to sign the declaration, with some positive responses," it said.
The U.S. Department of Transportation did not respond to a request for comment.
Global airlines agreed a net-zero 2050 goal in Boston earlier this month. But in what is widely seen as a dry run for efforts to reach a matching political deal at ICAO, China's state-owned airlines argued against the airline target.
"If Brazil, Russia, India or China signed on to it, that would be a very big deal," said a source familiar with the U.K.'s efforts, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It would make it far more likely to get a good deal at the (ICAO) assembly."
Officials from the 27 European Union countries will consider signing the declaration on Thursday. The European Commission could not immediately be reached for comment.
The so-called coalition is one of a set of deals Britain is trying to strike among clusters of countries at the UN climate summit, which runs from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Each one will address a key cause of planet-warming emissions - such as burning coal, or deforestation - and attempt to bring it in line with the deep emissions cuts needed to limit temperature increases to 1.5 C.
Some campaigners said the draft aviation deal was a positive step, but warned that voluntary targets were no substitute for binding regulations to curb pollution from flights.
"A target doesn't mean anything if you don't have a policy to enforce it," said Transport & Environment aviation manager Jo Dardenne.
Gilles Dufrasne, policy officer at Carbon Market Watch, said the draft deal had "several good elements" but did not oblige countries to address international aviation in their national climate targets.
An ICAO target, while not binding, would aim to push governments to take action to clean up the sector, like funding the production of sustainable aviation fuels. Low-carbon fuels are seen as crucial to cut emissions from flights, but their uptake has been hampered by factors including sky-high costs.
Many countries do not include emissions from international flights in their national climate targets, although some are planning tougher policies.
The EU is negotiating proposals to end tax exemptions for jet fuel and force suppliers to blend low-carbon fuels into their kerosene. Britain has said it will start counting international aviation emissions in its national carbon budgets.
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S.
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
An Ontario man says he paid more than $7,700 for a luxury villa he found on a popular travel website -- but the listing was fake.
Whether passionate about Poirot or hungry for Holmes, Winnipeg mystery obsessives have had a local haunt for over 30 years in which to search out their latest page-turners.
Eighty-two-year-old Susan Neufeldt and 90-year-old Ulrich Richter are no spring chickens, but their love blossomed over the weekend with their wedding at Pine View Manor just outside of Rosthern.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A mother goose and her goslings caused a bit of a traffic jam on a busy stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway near Vancouver Saturday.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.