US plans to work with UN to regulate airline emissions

Science : Commercial aircraft are a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions. Because any one nation’s planes fly all over the world, many say that aircraft emissions standards should be set at the international level. For that reason, the US Environmental Protection Agency says it plans to work with the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organization to help it set new fuel economy standards by next February. However, environmentalists worry that the process of setting international standards will be too cumbersome and that those standards may not be as stringent as they would like. The airlines counter that in order to reduce their fuel costs, they are already working to become as fuel efficient as possible. One drawback to the new regulations may be that they will apply only to new aircraft designs and won’t limit emissions from current craft.