A U.N. climate conference agreed Friday to consider allowing industrialized countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol to use emissions cuts in shipping and aviation to reach their targets for reducing gases linked to global warming.
The agreement fell short of European Union demands that shipping and aviation emissions be included in a new climate pact alongside pollutants from power plants and agriculture.
Thailand and some other nations opposed the inclusion of such transport emissions in a new agreement on the grounds it could hurt their tourism-dependent economies. Australia and China also felt the issue was already being tackled by the industries' associations _ the International Civil Aviation Organization and the U.N.'s International Maritime Organization.
"It is good we can finally talk about emissions from international aviation and maritime fuels which wouldn't have possible in recent years," said Jakob Graichen, a European Union delegate. "It is not as strong as the EU would have liked but it's an international process and everyone has to come to some kind of a conclusion."
Europe is pushing hard for a global deal to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other "greenhouse" gases blamed for global warming. It aims to slash its own CO2 output by a fifth by 2020, acknowledging that this will cost the economy billions of euros (dollars) _ but saying this sum will be far less than the financial impact of climate change.
Failing to get backing from other countries for a global deal to limit emissions from airlines, the EU now wants to press on with its own plan covering all civilian flights to and from Europe. The U.S. and others say they believe the EU plan, which would cover foreign carriers, breaks global rules.
So far the EU has not suggested a similar program for shipping, saying it will wait to see what emerges from talks with other parts of the world.
The debate over transport emissions is part of a larger discussion taking place this week in Bangkok among 163 governments over what should be included in a new climate change agreement. The agreement would succeed the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol _ which runs from 2008 to 2012 _ to rein in greenhouse gases.
The 37 countries that signed the Kyoto Protocol are required to cut their emissions by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012 and have agreed in principle to cut them by 25 percent to 40 percent by 2020.
Graichen said reductions in aviation and shipping emissions options that will now be discussed at meetings later this year for countries to meet their post-2012 emissions targets.
But some environmentalists said the wording in the work plan could be interpreted as allowing countries to make cuts in international air and sea transport emissions at the expense of industrial sectors in their own backyard.
"You will have to figure how bunker fuels might be credited back against your domestic target," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "How do you take that into consideration?"
Others complained it did not go far enough in holding the sectors responsible for the impacts of climate change.
"It is the responsibility of the governments to make a firm agreement to reduce rampant emissions from flying and shipping," Greenpeace climate campaigner Stephanie Tunmore said. "They should not abdicate that responsibility to industry dominated groups. This is the test of whether they are serious about delivering real action on climate change _ as they promised they would in Bali."
Emissions from aviation and shipping represent 5 percent to 8 percent of global emissions, but European governments fear pollutants from the two sectors could increase significantly by 2020. The European Community said shipping emissions are projected to grow by 32 percent, while aviation is expecting an increase of up to 90 percent.
The shipping and aviation industries successfully fended off efforts to include their emissions in the Kyoto Protocol a decade ago. But the EU and other delegates complained that the two industry groups have failed to live up to promises at the Kyoto meeting to take action on their own to cut emissions.
