Aviation and maritime transport in a post-2012 climate regime

Post-2012 emissions from international transport

Aim

This Scientific Assessment and Policy Analysis (WAB) report explores ways to incorporate international aviation and maritime shipping in a climate policy regime. Currently, emissions from international transport are not included in climate policy targets under the Kyoto Protocol. One of the reasons is that it is not clear which country should be held accountable for which share of the emissions.

This project is set out to develop concepts that are both founded on a sound scientific basis and in touch with current developments in international climate negotiations. For this purpose, the findings from the desk research stage have been presented to climate negotiators and other experts at several occasions, and comments have been fed back into the report.

Currently, much uncertainty exists with regard to the political will to agree on international action to combat climate change. This uncertainty and possible ways to engage countries in a global climate policy regime is not the primary subject of this report. Rather, this study addresses the issue how international transport could be incorporated in either an international or a regional climate policy, assuming that a sufficient number of parties agrees that such a policy is desirable.

Methodology

Three different types of policy regimes have been explored for including international aviation and maritime transport in a post-2012 climate policy regime:

• Allocation of responsibility for emissions to countries: each country is allocated a certain share of international transport emissions and this share is included in the national commitment.
• Sectoral commitments: the international transport sectors take on a commitment to reduce their climate impact.
• A regional start: international transport is not included in a global climate policy regime, but groups of countries, such as the EU, adopt policies addressing climate impacts of international transport.

In all, six concepts have been developed, two for each route.

Allocation of emissions to countries:

• Route based allocation
• Cargo based allocation

Sectoral commitments:

• Sectoral approach with emission cap
• Technology based sectoral approach

Regional start:

• Inclusion of aviation in ETS
• Inclusion of maritime shipping in existing policy instruments