Global scheme, agreed to by 191 nations, applies to passenger and cargo flights that generate more than 1,000 tonnes of greenhouse gases annually

The world’s first agreement to curb aviation’s greenhouse gas pollution has been struck by 191 nations in a landmark United Nations accord, although environmental groups have warned the deal doesn’t go far enough.



A meeting of 2,000 delegates at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a UN agency, in Montreal has settled upon a global emissions-reduction scheme that will apply to passenger and cargo flights that generate more than 10,000 tonnes of annual greenhouse gases.

The deal, aimed at reducing the growing climate impact of plane travel, follows years of disagreement between nations on how to slow emissions from the sector. Instead of facing a cap or charge on emissions, airlines will be involved in an offsetting scheme whereby forest areas and carbon-reducing activities will be funded, costing about 2% of the industry’s annual revenues. Global aviation emissions in 2020 will be used as a benchmark, with around 80% of emissions above 2020 levels offset until 2035.

The new system will be voluntary until 2027, but dozens of countries, including the world’s two largest emitters, the US and China, have promised to join at its outset in 2020. Campaigners hope that this will spike ambition to make aviation carbon neutral.

Olumuyiwa Bernard Aliu, president of ICAO, said the accord is a “bold decision and an historic moment”. But green groups have complained that the deal will do little to reduce aviation emissions, which account for 1.3% of the global greenhouse gas total today. This share is expected to leap to a quarter of all emissions by 2050 as more and more people opt to take flights. Currently, 10 million people a day are shuttled around the world on planes.

Bill Hemmings, aviation director of green group Transport & Environment, said: “Airline claims that flying will now be green are a myth. Taking a plane is the fastest and cheapest way to fry the planet and this deal won’t reduce demand for jet fuel one drop. Instead offsetting aims to cut emissions in other industries.”

The Paris climate agreement, which set an aspirational target of a 1.5C limit on the global temperature rise compared with pre-industrial times, is mentioned in the agreement’s preamble but was removed from its body, infuriating some environmentalists.

However, the deal does include review periods every three years and it rules out “double counting” of offsets to ensure that forest protection efforts elsewhere aren’t used to negate aircraft emissions.

“It’s a mixed bag really,” said Brad Schallert, deputy director of international climate cooperation at WWF.

“There’s a strong signal in there that you have got to have good carbon credits, not bogus ones. The lack of the Paris text puts more pressure on countries to step up and deliver. As an approach for the long run this won’t work, but luckily we have the review periods.”

Violeta Bulc, European commissioner for transport, said: “This unprecedented agreement opens a new chapter in international aviation, where sustainability finally becomes part of the way we fly. We have now set a process in motion, which will not be reversed. And yet, it is not ‘mission accomplished’.”

Emission reduction pledges made by nations in Paris last year will not, by themselves, meet the deal’s stated goal of avoiding a 1.5C or even 2C limit in temperature rise.

The shortfall means the world is on track for warming of 3C or 4C, which will cause a cascade of problems including extreme weather events, deadly heatwaves, coastal inundation by the rising seas and extinction of many of the world’s animal species.