We know who’s in the meeting, but not what’s going on.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) released a list of those attending the two-week meeting of the Committee on Aviation Environment Protection (CAEP). The committee is addressing issues such as the use of alternative fuels, emissions and supersonic jets.
Although few pictures have emerged on Twitter from inside the meeting, but little information about the debate. The two-week meeting, which ends Feb. 15, is being held at the ICAO Montreal headquarters.
Under ICAO’s secrecy policies:
- None of the relevant documents are made be public – before, during or after the meeting.
- The meetings are closed to the public and the press.
- The eventual official summary will be sold. The one for the last meeting cost $452.
See EYE’s detailed story on the restrictions.
List of Participants Disclosed
The list provided by ICAO, gives the 185 names, not only of the national delegations, but also those of the ICAO staff and the accredited observers. The number of industry representatives dwarfs the number those representing environmental groups.
A breakdown:
- 105 government delegates: 97 from 30 national governments and 8 from the European Union.
- 44 accredited observers from the International Coordinating Council of Aerospace Industries Associations, a consortium of six international aviation business groups, with individuals from companies including Boeing, Airbus, Gulfstream and Aerion Corporation.
- 15 observers from other groups, including 4 each from the International Air Transport Association and the International Business Aviation Council, plus 7 others, representing mainly pilots and airports.
- 3 from the International Coalition for Sustainable Aviation, the umbrella group of environmental groups.
- 2 from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
- 16 ICAO staffers.
The French delegates were shown in a photo, tweeted by the French permanent representative to the ICAO.
https://twitter.com/phbertoux/status/1092505892795310080
Another shot is a general view of the meeting.
The accredited observers, who can participate in the meetings but not vote, sign a pledge to not release documents or disclose their contents. Observer stand to lose their privileges if they break the policies.
There is no public agenda for the session which began Feb. 4 and will end Feb. 15.
ICAO Council President Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu gave remarks to CAEP providing an overview of the environmental issues before ICAO, according to an ICAO press release.
A summary of the issues from the perspective of environmental groups was provided in an article by Andrew Murphy and Jori Sihvonen of Transparency & Environment. They warned that action by the ICAO committee “risks clearing the way for the type of bad biofuels the EU has spent a decade trying to get rid of. And, on top of that, they are seeking to add “lower carbon” aviation fossil fuels as an option to cut aviation emissions.”
The authors, one of them an observer at the Montreal meeting, outlined the procedural situation and what they see as being at stake, but carefully avoided revealing the positions of the parties at the table. Doing so would violate the ICAO confidentiality standard and could cost them a seat at the table. They wrote:
All of this information is based on previous leaks and what we know are the planned ‘next steps’ for the committee. The meetings of ICAO and its environment committee are notoriously secret affairs where even the few observers allowed in are restricted on what they can say. One of the world’s biggest emitters is regulated almost entirely in secret.
Answer Pending on Rules on Government Transparency
How the restrictions work for governments seems a bit unclear.
Eye on Jan 30 asked the ICAO communications office to answer this question:
“Do ICAO rules prohibit a member state from making public its own submissions?”
A communications staffer Feb 1 replied that “we’ll be needing the advice of some legal and environment staff who have a better sense of the official requirements/policies at play in this instance, so a quick response is likely not in the offing for now.”
The US government, however, initially seemed providing EYE with one document submitted in advance of the meeting, a working paper, but has yet to respond to a Feb. 11 request for other US submissions.
Typically, governments do not disclose their positions.
The coalition of environmental groups has released carefully editing statements on its positions, treading lightly so as not to disclose others’ positions. (See EYE story noted above.)
In another development, The Guardian published an article about the lack of transparency at ICAO.
Follow EYE on Twitter @tobyjmcintosh
