ICAO to set fuel efficiency action program

A working group of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has agreed to launch an action program that calls for improving the fuel efficiency of the global aviation industry by 2% every year. The working group, consisting of representatives from Japan, the United States, China and 12 other major nations, reached the accord at a meeting in Montreal, Canada, late in May and will circulate a list featuring their fuel efficiency target, methods for monitoring progress and other specific measures against global warming among some 190 contracting states of ICAO. ICAO will adopt the action program at a meeting of all contracting states in October. Also, ICAO may review the numerical fuel efficiency target in line with future technical innovations. The first such program for the international aviation industry will require governments and airlines of contracting states to switch to fuel-efficient aircraft and shift to more efficient flight routes. ICAO is poised to report on the action program to the 15th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP15) which will be held in Copenhagen in December, a meeting for adopting a global framework to succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas reductions. (June 3, 2009)