32nd Session of the Assembly
News Media Daily Report
Monday, 28 September 1998

Executive Committee considers Agenda Item 21 on the Environment

Cuba ratifies Article 3bis

At the opening of the meeting of the Executive Committee, the Delegate of Cuba advised that his delegation had just presented to the President of the Council Cuba's instrument of ratification of the Protocol relating to the Amendment of Article 3 bis of the Convention, which prohibits the use of weapons against civil aircraft. The President of the Council noted that this raised the number of ratifications to 101, and that only one more was required for the Amendment to enter into force.

Environmental Issues

Turning to Agenda Item 21, three different aspects of the item were discussed separately, namely, emissions; charges and taxes; and noise.

On the question of emissions, the Committee agreed to invite the Plenary:

1. to endorse further immediate work by ICAO on the effects of the various options for allocation of emissions from international aviation bunker fuels, as suggested by SBSTA. Activities should be in close liaison with SBSTA to make proposals for a suitable methodology for allocation. Any decision should be for the Parties working through ICAO;
2. to endorse the recommendation on NOx emissions from aircraft from the fourth meeting of the Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection CAEP as a first step;
3. to request the Council to continue the work on the reduction of gaseous emissions from aircraft engines; and
4. to request the Council to continue to co-operate with the UNFCCC Secretary in taking the appropriate steps on the inclusion of greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation in the overall greenhouse gas inventories of parties to the UNFCCC.

On the subject, of charges and taxes, the Committee examined and approved with some changes, for inclusion in the successor to Assembly Resolution A31-11 - Consolidated Statement of Continuing ICAO Policies and Practices Related to Environmental Protection - Environmental Charges and Taxes, the text appearing in Appendix C to WP/35.

The Committee, noting the number of queries and suggestions advanced during the course of the discussion on the subject, agreed that exhaustive studies were required before any decisions could be taken relevant to the Organization's further work on the subject of the application of environmental charges and taxes.

On the subject of noise, there was general agreement that new noise certification standards needed to be developed that properly take account of technological progress, and that it was important for CAEP to devote itself quickly to that task.

The Technical Commission on Agenda Item 25: Global Aviation Safety Plan (GASP)

The Technical Commission agreed to recommend that the Plenary adopt an Assembly Resolution on the ICAO GASP, based on proposals in WP/58, WP/93 and WP/95, and taking into account comments made during the discussion. In addition, the Technical Commission endorsed in principle the Assembly Resolution on the proficiency of flight crew in the English language for radiotelephony communication on international flights, as proposed in WP/148 and modified by the discussion.

Under Agenda Item 26, the Technical Commission noted the report on the prevention of controlled flight into terrain programme presented in WP/60 (presented by the Council).

This summary can be augmented by consulting the Assembly Agenda and therelated working papers.

For more information, please contact; Denis Chagnon, Public Information Officer, E-mail: [email protected]; Tel. + 1 (514) 954-8220

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