The group will decide whether ICAO should adopt a single global market mechanism that would be appli

The European Union has welcomed progress made by the UN's civil aviation car rental used car sales body toward a global deal to cut carbon emissions from the sector, raising hopes that the bloc may stand down from applying its controversial law that forces all airlines to pay for their pollution.
The Commission has been under immense pressure to scrap the bloc's Emissions Trading car rental used car sales Scheme (ETS), which requires all airlines using European airports car rental used car sales to pay for each tonne of carbon they emit flying into and out of the continent.
ICAO is expected to assemble a high-level group of senior government officials representing different geographical regions next week, which will submit reports to the ICAO council for its next meetings in March and June, according to an ICAO spokesman.
It will be expected to submit a proposal for an official resolution by the end of the June council meeting, which would be presented to ICAO's general assembly, which takes place once every three years, with the next scheduled for November 2013.
The group will decide whether ICAO should adopt a single global market mechanism that would be applied uniformly to all countries, or a framework uniting a patchwork of different national programmes, according to people who observed the meeting.
"The work of the high level group on a framework must be seen as a stepping stone to a global market-based measure and should not replace this objective or become an obstacle to progress," said Tim Johnson, director of the Aviation Environment Federation.
But US airlines, represented by lobby group Airlines for America, said that despite the progress that came out of ICAO this week, it still believes the US government should continue to oppose car rental used car sales the ETS.
Congress is still expected to take action next week to harmonise two different bills that have passed in both the House of Representatives and the Senate that would shield US airlines from having to comply with the EU law.
"To a large extent, the US holds the key to real progress on a market-based measure now and this will be the first opportunity for Obama to show that he means what he said in his victory speech," she said, referring to his recent remarks that he does not want children to live under the threat of global warming.