ABSTRACT
The Paris Agreement predecessor, the Kyoto Protocol, made specific reference to the emissions, requesting developed states to work though the specialised UN agencies – International Civil Aviation Organization for aviation and International Maritime Organization for shipping – to limit and reduce emissions from these sectors. International shipping and aviation are major economic sectors and significant sources of emissions. A number of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) pledge economy-wide emission reductions, e.g. the NDCs submitted by the US, EU, Canada, South Korea and Russia, which, without a clear statement to the contrary, should be taken to include international aviation and shipping emissions. The attribution of emissions to parties should not be confused with the differentiated responsibility of parties to take action on those emissions via NDCs. Excluding international aviation and shipping from national and regional efforts, sectors which if they were states would both be top ten emitters, risks fatally undermining the objective of the Paris Agreement.
