A UN group is approving standards for measuring how much airlines need to reduce the growth of greenhouse-gas emissions from planes. The standards were approved Wednesday by the council of the ICAO. Under a 2016 agreement, airlines that fly international routes are to begin measuring their emissions next Jan 1. Those measurements will be used to determine how much airlines need to offset the growth in emissions. Aviation accounts only about 2% of emissions linked to climate change, but its share is growing more rapidly than many other sources. The UN group is deciding how to put into effect a plan called the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation that aims to freeze the level of carbon emissions from aviation at 2020 levels. <br/>
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An airlines group representing 9 major carriers has asked the DoT to limit the type of emotional support animals allowed on flights to just dogs. A4A wrote a report to DoT earlier this month, requesting stricter policies for emotional support animals. The airlines group argues that the number of incidents involving emotional support animals has only grown in recent years — American Airlines saw a 40% increase of support animals on-board between 2016 and 2017 — and that the reported incidents of emotional support animals “urinat[ing], defecat[ing] and biting” has also increased. “Airlines have become increasingly concerned that untrained service animals pose a risk to the health and safety of its crew members and passengers,” the airlines group said in the report. <br/>
China has rebuffed a US request for talks about China’s demand for international airlines to start referring to Taiwan as part of China, a spokesman at the US Embassy in Beijing said Thursday. Expressing disappointment that the Chinese side had refused to discuss the matter, the spokesman said the US was calling on China “to stop threatening and coercing American companies and citizens.” The administration was considering how to respond from here, he said. China wrote to airlines in April demanding that they change their websites and other materials—not just in China, but globally—and adopt language approved by Beijing regarding self-ruled Taiwan as well as Hong Kong and Macau, which are special administrative regions of China. Foreign airlines face potential reprisals if they don’t make the changes. <br/>