REMARKS FOR
THE HONORABLE MARY PETERS
SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION
36th ICAO ASSEMBLY
MONTREAL, CANADA
SEPTEMBER 18, 2007
3 PM
Thank you. It is a great honor to represent the United States at this
distinguished Assembly, and to be joined by a very able U.S. team. Most of you
know our Ambassador to ICAO, Donald Bliss, and our Under Secretary of
Transportation for Policy, Jeff Shane.
And I am pleased to introduce Bobby Sturgell, our new Acting Administrator at
the Federal Aviation Administration. He takes over for Marion Blakey, who
completed her tenure last week.
We have come together here in Montreal because we recognize the international
nature of aviation. Countless flights cross borders and link nations every day.
The passengers on board these flights carry a variety of passports, and speak a
multitude of languages. And the airplanes carrying these passengers – and the
many parts that go into them – also have diverse origins.
Aviation’s global reach is exactly why ICAO is the right forum to make aviation
safer, more secure, and more environmentally sound across the globe.
Over many decades, ICAO has filled its role admirably.
It has given the world, among other things, an international standard for safety
that is unmatched – helping bring about a 25 percent reduction in major aviation
accidents in the most recent five-year period.
ICAO also has proved its ability to deal with crises. It showed its value in the
wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and growing terrorist
threats around the globe, by bringing the world community together to set new
international standards for security.
In the United States, we say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery,
and it is a tribute to the unparalleled effectiveness of this organization that
we are today examining the ICAO model in our effort to ensure the safety of
products and goods traded in the global marketplace.
I want to urge my colleagues to remain true to this legacy of cooperation over
the next two weeks.
Just as we have benefited from a unified global approach to safety and security,
we need to work under the auspices of ICAO to develop an effective global
framework for addressing aviation’s environmental impacts. Unilateral measures
by a single country or region are wholly inconsistent with the collaborative,
global approach that ICAO has advanced so successfully in other areas for
aviation.
Let me be clear. The United States is committed to acting decisively to find
ways to reduce aviation’s carbon footprint. But there is no easy way to solve
this problem, much less a “one size fits all” approach for every country.
Market-based measures – including emissions trading – may very well become part
of an effective approach. But any scheme affecting international flights can
only be adopted after mutual consent by countries whose airlines are affected.
And it would be a mistake to ignore the role of technology and other innovation
in reducing emissions.
We have seen incredible success in the United States, the largest aviation
market in the world. At a time when our airlines are carrying 12 percent more
passengers and 22 percent more freight than they were just seven years ago, the
industry has successfully cut CO2 emissions by 10 million tons a year. That is
the equivalent of taking 1.6 million cars out of the daily commute to work.
These reductions have come through innovations that are delivering cleaner, more
energy-efficient aircraft and engines as well as ground equipment.
They are the result of new technologies and operating procedures that are
producing more efficient air traffic routes and airspace configurations that
reduce emissions and fuel usage.
A core technology for improving the efficiency of air traffic management and
aircraft navigation – and thus central to any plan to curb emissions – is the
Global Positioning System, or GPS. This technology supports not just navigation,
but also hundreds of everyday applications from communication and emergency
response to financial services and precision agriculture.
Thirteen years ago, the United States announced that it would make the benefits
of GPS available to everyone, everywhere, free of charge.
Today, on behalf of President Bush, I am pleased to announce that the next
generation of GPS satellites (GPS III) will deliver signals without any
compromise in precision – guaranteed. That is because the United States will
remove the “selective availability” capability from that system. Eliminating
this source of potential uncertainty in GPS performance for civil uses will make
the system even more attractive to the world’s users.
Aviation is and must remain a global enterprise. We are committed to working
with the international community through ICAO to achieve consensus on key
security, safety, and environmental goals.
Cooperation here has not always been easy. But this organization has always
found a way to forge solutions that guide international civil aviation.
I am confident that, with cooperation, we will find solutions to today’s
critical issues, including emissions. I wish you all well for the success of
this Assembly. Thank you.
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