ITALY PRIVATELY FAVORS ICAO AVIATION EMISSIONS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ROME 001945 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS USEU PASS FOR T SMITHAM BRUSSELS PASS FOR FAA K EDWARDS STATE PASS FOR IO/T AND EB/TRA MONTREAL PASS FOR US MISSION TO ICAO FAA PASS FOR J FILIPPATOS, D REIMOLD, C BURLESON E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: EAIR SENV ECON ETRD XA XB XD XF XG XL IT SUBJECT: ITALY PRIVATELY FAVORS ICAO AVIATION EMISSIONS SCHEME--WITH STRINGS REF: A. ROME 1600 ¶B. SECSTATE 77572 ROME 00001945 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Government of Italy (GOI) representatives recently indicated unofficially that Italy would prefer a global aviation emissions solution rather than the EU Commission's proposed Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS). GOI MFA comments suggest that, with a commitment to global and binding emissions standards by all ICAO participants, Italy would support an agreement that would supersede the proposed ETS. Our interlocutors reiterated that in the interim, as an EU member, Italy must support the ETS. Neither of our contacts articulated what a new aviation emissions plan would look like, but it is likely that the GOI would advocate for rigorous environmental measures in any plan. END SUMMARY ¶2. (SBU) Fabio Marchiandi, Head of the International Relations Office at ENAC (the Italian Civil Aviation Authority),told Emboffs privately that Italy would like a "softer" position on emissions than that proposed in the EU ETS directive, and would like a global solution to aviation emissions developed and executed within the ICAO context. He did not articulate what a softer aviation emissions position would entail. COMMENT: Presumably a global or broad-based ICAO mechanism would be the result of negotiated compromise between the EU and other countries. END COMMENT. ¶3. (SBU) Marchiandi disclosed that, as a way to achieve this softer position, Italy and other European countries are attempting to replace Germany with Portugal on the informal ICAO "Friends of the (ICAO) President" (F.O.P.) group. According to Marchiandi, Portugal, like Italy, is less ardent in its support for the ETS than Germany. The GOI's hope is that a newly-reconstituted F.O.P. group would influence the ICAO President and the Assembly to discuss aviation emissions and work to find a solution within the ICAO context. COMMENT: The U.K. and Germany currently represent Europe in the F.O.P. group. The F.O.P. group has not addressed environmental matters before. END COMMENT. ¶4. (SBU) Stefano Nicoletti, Head of MFA's office that covers transportation issues, unofficially confirmed the GOI's preference for ICAO as the locus of civil aviation policy, and the GOI's preference for a global, rather than solely European, aviation emissions plan. Nicoletti said that the GOI would support an ICAO aviation emissions initiative instead of the ETS if ICAO demonstrates a commitment to deal effectively with the problem. For the GOI, key elements of such a commitment would include an ICAO-wide acknowledgment of the aviation emissions problem, and a clearly stated objective to develop a global and binding solution with a timetable for implementation. A further sign of ICAO's seriousness would be designating a committee to address the issue, perhaps ICAO's Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP). Nicoletti underlined Italy's interest in being part of such a group. ¶5. (SBU) With these conditions, Nicoletti said privately that Italy could commit to acting as a mediator to find a compromise between the EU ETS and a plan more acceptable to the rest of the world. Nicoletti suggested that other European countries would be interested in this plan also, but he did not identify them (NOTE: As reported in ref A, these countries may be Spain and Portugal. END NOTE). Neither could he identify what form the basis for a revised agreement might take or how the GOI would approach the EU to revise ETS. ¶6. (SBU) COMMENT: From these remarks, it is clear that the GOI does not fully support the EU position on aviation emissions in the proposed ETS; Italy could, therefore, be helpful in efforts to shift the aviation emissions discussion to ICAO. However, both Marchiandi and Nicoletti emphasized ROME 00001945 002.2 OF 002 that the decision to implement the ETS is a political one at the European Commission level, and has considerable momentum. Both stated that Italy must publicly support the EU plan. Finally, it is important to remember that while Italy may not be enthusiastic about the ETS plan as currently formulated, the GOI would likely call for stringent measures in any aviation emissions scheme, be it ICAO- or EU-based (ref A, comments by R Cecchi). END COMMENT SPOGLI