U.S. EPA seeks to address greenhouse gas emissions from aircraft

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Wednesday it will seek to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from domestic commercial aircraft.

In a 194-page finding, the U.S. agency said that greenhouse gas emissions from commercial aircraft contribute to air pollution that causes climate change, endangering public health and welfare.

It described the finding as "a preliminary but necessary first step to begin to address GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions from the aviation sector, the highest-emitting category of transportation sources that the EPA has not yet addressed."

For the past five years, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a specialized body of the United Nations with 191 member states, has been working with the aviation industry and other stakeholders to develop coordinated, international carbon dioxide emissions standards for aircraft.

The ICAO is expected to adopt the carbon dioxide standards for aircraft in early 2016.

The EPA said the new finding will "lay the necessary foundation for the development and implementation of a domestic aircraft standard, in accordance with U.S. law and the ICAO process."

But the regulation will not apply to small piston-engine planes, which are often used for recreational purposes, or to military aircraft, it added.

According to the EPA, U.S. aircraft emit roughly 11 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. transportation sector and 29 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from all aircraft globally. Endite