UN aviation agency at 80 challenged by climate change, rising traffic

A global blueprint for modern air travel struck 80 years ago this week faces fresh tests managing change and rising air traffic in the developing world, a senior official at the UN's aviation agency told Reuters. On Thursday, the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is bringing together regulators and industry executives including from Boeing and Airbus in a special session at the Chicago site marking its birthplace. With no policing powers, ICAO uses consensus to set standards on everything from runways to seat belts. The agency was created after the United States invited more than 50 allies to agree in 1944 to a common air navigation system. The signing of the Convention on International Civil Aviation on Dec. 7, 1944, underpinned support for the creation of ICAO and its reliance on multilateralism to manage the skies. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Wednesday at a reception at the Hilton Chicago Hotel, formerly the Stevens Hotel where the convention was adopted, that ICAO helped ensure air travel as the safest mode of transportation. "The safety record is a marvel of collective action, responsible choices, policy and regulation and standards that sometimes is as unglamorous as it gets, but it makes everything else possible," Buttigieg said. That post-war cooperation is now being tested by a rise in populism, even as ICAO confronts challenges unforeseen in 1944, like concern over emissions from global aviation. "We are going to celebrate the past, of course, but we want to take this opportunity, this celebration to look forward," said ICAO Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano in an interview this week at the agency's Montreal headquarters.<br/>