International Civil Aviation Organisation chief Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu would meet Civil Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju and Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave here tomorrow to discuss major issues, including aviation safety and carbon emission.
Today, Aliu, who is on a three-day visit to India, visited major aviation facilities at the Delhi Airport as part of his programme here.
Aliu, whose visit comes ahead of the 39th Assembly of the ICAO next month, "will meet the Civil Aviation Minister tomorrow to exchange views on issues related to aviation safety, security, environment protection and capacity building in the region, among others," official sources told PTI here.
Senior officials including Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey and Airports Authority of India chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra will attend the meeting.
India is one of the earliest members of ICAO since it was set up in 1947 and its representative, Shivinder Singh Sidhu, was its Secretary General from 1988 to 1991.
The ICAO chief's meeting with the environment minister tomorrow comes in the wake of BASIC countries including India voicing concern over a proposal to limit carbon emissions in the aviation sector on the ground that such a move would impose additional burden on developing nations.
At his meeting with Dave, Aliu is expected to discuss the ICAO's proposed Global Market Based Measures (GMBMs) which are aimed at limiting or reducing carbon emission in the aviation sector, the sources said.
GMBMs have been under consideration of ICAO for many years. Several major countries, including India, USA, China and Russia, had also protested the European Union's decision to impose a carbon tax on all airlines whose planes which flew on European airspace.
At the 38th session of the ICAO Assembly, a decision was
taken to develop a GMBM scheme to limit CO2 emissions in aviation sector. The proposal is scheduled to be discussed at the forthcoming ICAO Assembly.
The proposed measures are to be implemented in the form of an offsetting scheme, which requires participants to offset their CO2 emissions above an agreed level by carbon emission trading.
However, during the BASIC Ministerial Meeting on climate change held here in April this year, member countries including India expressed concern over the GMBMs saying "it may impose inappropriate burden on developing countries where the international aviation market is still maturing."
According to experts, when the mechanism comes into force, it will lead to imposition of tax on flights which an airline might recover from passengers.
Last week, global airlines grouping IATA had expressed confidence that a consensus would be reached on the issue at the 39th ICAO Assembly.
"The exercise is a political process and in any such process there is no guarantee of a final outcome until an agreement has been reached...But we do see real engagement from the government in this process," Michael Gill, Director Aviation Environment of IATA, had said.
