Two United Nations specialist agencies, the Inter-national Civil Aviation Authority (ICAO) and the international Maritime Organisation (IMO) may this year separately agree a basis on which all carriers by sea and air will limit their carbon emissions, reported in the case of aviation to be contributing around two per cent of global carbon emissions, and for maritime transport to be at over three per cent. At issue, is whether such reductions should result from a form of taxation involving licensing with revenue flowing to governments, or whether the industries themselves should take measures to mitigate their emissions.
Up to now, when it comes to aviation, Australia, the United Kingdom, the European Union and other nations have been trying to achieve reductions by imposing solutions on aviation in a piecemeal manner.
In the case of Europe this involved the inclusion of aviation into the EU’s wider emissions trading scheme (EU-ETS) as of January 1, 2013. Under the regulation all