By Will Nichols, Source: BusinessGreen

A decision on whether to bring shipping and aviation emissions into the UK’s 2050 carbon target will not be made until 2016 at the earliest, the government announced today.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Davey said waiting until the fifth carbon budget is actually being set would allow the government to take into account any future changes to how aviation emissions are tackled at a global level.

Proposals to limit both shipping and aviation emissions are expected this year after a decade of international talks, but the outcomes are far from certain.

“Given the uncertainty of what is happening at the EU and global level in managing aviation emissions, we think it sensible to defer our decision on the inclusion of aviation and shipping emissions in the UK’s carbon budgets,” Davey said in a statement.

“This government is fully committed to meeting the 2050 target, and this is consistent with the UK’s contribution to the international goal of limiting global temperature rises due to climate change to 2°C.”

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said the decision to delay a decision to 2016 was made after consulting with its emissions advisory body, the Committee on Climate Change, which earlier in the year recommended the sectors be included in carbon budgets.

It added that the decision will not impact on the UK’s ability to meet the first four carbon budgets, which have already been set to allow headroom for emissions from international aviation and shipping.

However, green groups have argued that failing to include the two sectors would mean other sectors of the economy have to make deeper carbon cuts than planned and could throw the UK off course from meeting its target of reducing emissions 80 per cent on 1990 levels by 2050.

Keith Allott, head of climate change at WWF-UK, criticised the government’s “dither and delay” in postponing the decision until after the next election.

“The clarification that the 2050 emissions target includes aviation and shipping is a positive step, but it’s hardly a ringing endorsement of the government’s green credentials,” he added.

“The UK’s existing carbon budgets already take emissions from international aviation and shipping into account, and representatives of the aviation and shipping sectors have expressed their support, so there is no real reason to delay this decision.”

The government has previously expressed its support for an international agreement to tackle shipping and aviation emissions, which each account for about three per cent of the global total.

Last month, the EU suspended rules charging airlines for emissions during flights in and out of its airports until late 2013, by which time the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is due to have proposed a market mechanism for dealing with aviation emissions, such as emissions trading.

Should the UN body be unable to come to an agreement, the EU regulation is due to snap back into place – but this may prove difficult for Brussels to achieve given rumoured opposition to restoring the rules from the UK, Germany and France.

Meanwhile, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) is also working to progress a similar measure for shipping. However, its slow progress has led to some veiled warnings from the European Commission that it may take action to tackle the problem regionally should a global agreement not be put in place soon.