A United Nations-backed accord to cap greenhouse gas emissions from commercial airliners is the first global framework for managing the international aviation sector's carbon footprint and reducing air pollution, marking what could be the first step toward new airplane emissions regulations covering the U.S. and over 100 other countries.
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"I don't think it'll be a smooth road to set standards about how efficient new engines have to be, but to say the entire industry has to work together to offset, that's a little bit of a trickier thing to accomplish and I don't think the two agencies [the EPA and FAA] have completely figured out how they're going to do it," Greenberg Traurig LLP shareholder Bernadette M. Rappold said.
She added that it's a tall order to do standard-making in conformance with the recent ICAO agreement.
"The question I have in my mind is if the average air miles to be traveled are really going to increase in the years to come, how do you really make a dent in this one source of air emissions if you don't have some kind of engine-based standards as well?" Rappold asked.