Aviation and shipping to be part of Climate Change Bill

Ahead of a vote in Parliament today (October 28), a spokesperson from the Department of Energy and Climate Change said the Government was “determined” that aviation and shipping should be part of tackling climate change.

“Through the Climate Change Bill, we're putting in place the most ambitious legislation in the world to tackle climate change and cut emissions by 80 per cent. The Government is determined that international aviation and shipping should be part of a comprehensive approach to tackling climate change,” said the spokesperson.

"We want to reflect Adair Turner's advice to government: that emissions from aviation and shipping should be taken into account when developing our strategy to reach our targets, and his recognition that there is currently no agreed method of allocating international emissions to individual countries."

The UK's share of international shipping and aviation emissions accounts for 7.6 per cent of the UK's total carbon dioxide emissions.

Its omission from the Climate Change Bill, due to become law next month, was seen as a major loophole in the legislation.
 
Fifty-six backbench Labour MPs tabled an amendment to the bill on Thursday October 23, strengthening the case for inclusion of aviation and shipping emissions.

Campaigning group Friends of the Earth which has been conducting its own campaign – The Big Ask – to get action on Climate Change enshrined in law for the past three years, has encouraged more than 200,000 people to email, write or visit their MPs to ask them to support a law on Climate Change.

MPs will also vote today on an amendment to the Climate Change Bill, tabled by the Government last week, which would raise the target for cutting greenhouse gases from 60 per cent to 80 percent by 2050.

When passed into law, the Climate Change Bill will be the first legislation of its kind anywhere in the world.