European countries who are members of the UN civil aviation body are keeping their work on climate policies for the aviation sector secret from their citizens, in breach of an international treaty on public access to environmental information. The Aarhus Convention covers three principles: access to environmental information, public participation in environmental decision-making and access…
The aviation sector must not escape an effective tax on its emissions “A great, great deal has been said about the weather, but very little has ever been done” – Marc Twain On Friday 15th of March, Carbon Market Watch took to the streets with more than 30,000 people as part of the Fridays for…
During a closed door session, the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) –the UN body responsible for global aviation– approved the eligibility criteria for what offsets can be used under the new aviation pollution scheme. While an important step, the decision leaves the door open to billions of older ‘junk’ emission units that…
A new paper published in Nature Climate Change confirms that relying on outdated Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) carbon credits to compensate aviation emissions will do nothing for climate action. You can read the full paper here (paywall): Warnecke et al. (2019): “Robust eligibility criteria essential for new global scheme to offset aviation emissions”, Nature Climate…
This week, European Member States agreed on a common position regarding the future implementation of the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s (ICAO) new carbon market, set to start operating in 2021. The creation of a new offsetting mechanism for aviation, the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), was agreed as part of a…
This week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a leading climate science body, has published a report on the scientific evidence relating to 1.5C° global warming. The report shows that it is still possible to limit warming to 1.5C° and avoid dangerous climate change. Reaching this goal, however, would require rapid and large-scale climate…
The latest round of negotiations on aviation’s offsetting scheme finished in ICAO at the end of last month, with crucial rules on offsets and biofuels postponed until the next meeting in mid-September. Long-standing reservations from China and Brazil challenged the enforcement of criteria developed in the UN agency that would restrict low-quality offsets from entering…
The future aviation offsetting scheme will end up having little impact on the sector’s soaring emissions unless restrictions are applied on what kind of offset credits airlines can purchase, a new study has found. The study, commissioned by the German government, looked at the scenario where all offset credits from the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism…
In October, the private sector lending arm of the World Bank Group (International Finance Corporation, IFC) confirmed the cancellation of a controversial Santa Rita hydroelectric project in Guatemala, approved under the UN’s carbon offsetting scheme Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The announcement follows a report by the IFC Ombudsman which found serious failings in the project…
The United Nations climate conferences bring together governments, academics, civil society, media and many others regularly to discuss climate change in the context of the UN Framework Convention. The next meeting takes place 6-17 November in Bonn. At the same time, behind closed doors without public scrutiny, the UN aviation body meets to decide on…
Kaisa Amaral, Communications Director
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Carbon pricing 
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