UN agency proposes greenhouse gas emissions rules for planes
By JOAN LOWY and MICHAEL BIESECKER, Associated Press
Feb 8, 2016 5:12 PM CST
In this photo taken March 24, 2015, an Alaska Airlines jet takes off at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in SeaTac, Wash. A U.N. panel on Feb. 8, 2016, proposed long-sought greenhouse gas emissions standards for airliners and cargo planes beginning in 2020 for new aircraft designs and three years...   (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.N. panel on Monday proposed long-sought greenhouse gas emissions standards for airliners and cargo planes, but they were quickly criticized by environmentalists as too weak to actually slow global warming.

The International Civil Aviation Organization said the agreement reached by 170 international experts requires new aircraft designs meet the standards beginning in 2020, and that designs already in production comply three years later. There is also a cutoff date of 2028 for the manufacture of planes that don't comply with the standards. The standard must still be adopted by the agency's 36-nation governing council.

The standards would be the first ever to impose binding energy efficiency and carbon dioxide reduction targets for the aviation sector. They would require an average 4 percent reduction in fuel consumption during the cruise phase of flight starting in 2028 when compared with planes delivered in 2015. However, planes burn the most fuel during takeoffs and landings.

"It calls for about a third of the technically feasible efficiency improvements that we estimate will be available for new aircraft designs when the standard takes effect," said Dan Rutherford, aviation direction of the International Council on Clean Transportation.

But Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, president of the ICAO council, said ICAO's goal "is ultimately to ensure that when the next generation of aircraft types enters service, there will be guaranteed reductions in international carbon emissions,

Environmentalists also complained that ICAO has been working on international standards for 18 years and is now proposing to give aircraft manufacturers another dozen years to comply.

"These dangerously weak recommendations put the Obama administration under enormous pressure to take U.S. action against airplane pollution," said Vera Pardee, a Center for Biological Diversity attorney who has sued the U.S. government over aviation emissions.

Last June, the Obama administration proposed regulating aircraft emissions, saying they are a threat to human health because they contain pollutants that help cause global warming. But a final U.S. decision on adoption of international standards is likely to be left to the next presidential administration. EPA officials said at the time that the earliest the agency is likely to propose adoption of ICAO standards would be in 2017.

Boeing is the United States' largest exporter as measured in dollar value. The company vies with Airbus for the title of world's largest aircraft maker.

The newest Boeing and Airbus designs already meet the proposed efficiency standards, due to demands for fuel savings from the airlines, environmentalists said. In the meantime, the manufacturers get to continue selling older, less efficient designs for years to come. Airliners in use now are exempt from the new standards altogether, meaning even dirtier planes can continue to fly.

Aviation accounts for about 5 percent of global greenhouse emissions, according to environmentalists. ICAO says it's actually less than 2 percent.

But that share is expected to grow as aviation grows. "We also recognize that the projected doubling of global passengers and flights by 2030 must be managed responsibly and sustainably," said Aliu.

The action comes two months after U.N. climate negotiators in Paris left the aviation industry out of their landmark global agreement to combat global warming.

The proposed standard covers the full range of sizes and types of aircraft used in international aviation today, but reserves the strictest standards for planes weighing over 60 tons, ICAO said. The larger planes are responsible for about 90 percent of international aviation emissions.

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Follow Michael Biesecker on Twitter at —https://twitter.com/mbieseck and find his work at —http://bigstory.ap.org/content/michael-biesecker