Paris Agreement: development of measures and activities for climate-friendly aviation and maritime transport: final report

In: Climate change 2023, 25

In: Ressortforschungsplan of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection

Abstract

Aviation and maritime transport are not explicitly mentioned in the Paris Agreement. In Article 4, however, the Parties aim to achieve a balance between anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and sinks - in other words, complete decarbonisation and climate neutrality - in the second half of this century. Since emissions from aviation and maritime transport are clearly anthropogenic, they fall within the scope of the Paris Agreement goals even without being explicitly mentioned. Within the scope of this project, BMU and UBA received comprehensive and timely support on many issues relating to greenhouse gas mitigation in international aviation and maritime transport. This support ranged from quantitative analysis of current proposals for policies or instruments to ad hoc support in and between negotiations of international bodies (ICAO, IMO, EU, etc.) and to further development of existing instruments or development of their own policy proposals. Over the course of this project, the discussion about greenhouse gas reductions in aviation and maritime transport moved somewhat towards a reduction path that is compatible with the Paris Agreement. This project has contributed to that change, thereby fulfilling its original objective. Nevertheless, international aviation and maritime transport are still far off a reduction path that is compatible with the Paris Agreement. With this in mind, efforts to make international agreements with ambitious targets and instruments must not diminish.