PoliSCI

Carbon offsetting rules will be tightened for the aviation sector

The UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) will enforce stricter rules on carbon offsetting for airlines in the next year in an effort to help the environment.  

This decision will mean that airlines and businesses will need to purchase carbon credits through a verified scheme to help minimise gaps within the carbon offsetting space. Due to the negative impact aviation has on biodiversity, firms in the aviation sector will be obliged to comply with the new rules in order to reduce climate pressure and meet the net-zero emissions target.    

President Salvatore Sciacchitano of Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), said, ’This decision…represents an important environmental milestone.’  

Upcoming inquiry into UK readiness for disease outbreaks 

The committee announced plans to analyse evidence from researchers and individual experts involved with the response to COVID-19. The aim of this examination is to review the UK’s ability to deal with global outbreaks. 

Areas for analysis include; contribution of R&D in understanding ability and capability of institutions and researchers to respond, capacity to make and distribute treatments and drugs, capturing of data to inform the scientific community and the overall country's readiness for future outbreaks.

The committee added that by capturing evidence during the course of the pandemic, they will be able to assess the place of UK research, science and technology in dealing with such outbreaks, as well as how the government and research responses can be improved.  

Coronavirus strategies shifted following epidemiologists’s report.   

The research showed that policy strategies which aim to suppress the rate of transmission might reduce death and peak healthcare demand by two-thirds, but to suppress transmission to low levels, stronger mitigation interventions will be necessary.

 Read more here.