I welcome today's announcement by the European Commissioner for Climate Action suspending the inclusion of international aviation in the European Union Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) until September 2013.
The Australian Government has consistently opposed the unilateral application of the EU ETS to international aviation and has continued to press our position with the EU at ministerial and diplomatic levels.
This decision means the International Civil Aviation Organization can continue developing a truly global approach to what is a global problem and demonstrates the effectiveness of the Australian Government's efforts to reach a sensible compromise on this issue.
We reiterate that we firmly believe that efforts to address emissions will require a concerted global effort without discrimination on the basis of place of origin or destination of passengers or cargo, or the national origin of the carrier.
To this end we will continue to work with our global partners to deliver effective, workable and sensible measures to tackle climate change.
Already, Australia's airlines are leading the world in tackling carbon pollution with new data showing emissions per passenger have been cut by almost 40 per cent over the past two decades. Our Aviation Emissions Action Plan, released today, also shows there has been a 100 per cent improvement in fuel efficiency.
Australia remains actively committed to developing a global framework to address emissions and we look forward to the opportunity to progress these issues at the ICAO Assembly in September next year.
Australia's Aviation Emissions Action Plan is available at: www.infrastructure.gov.au/aviation/environmental/index.aspx.