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Emma Fenton is senior director of climate diplomacy at Opportunity Green, an NGO working to unlock the opportunities from tackling climate change using law, economics, and policy.

Last week, the world’s governments came together in Montreal for the triennial assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), just as aviation’s climate impact is coming under sharper scrutiny.

Despite aviation contributing 4% of global heating to date, there are no effective measures to drive emissions reductions – and the industry is expected to keep growing. Passenger traffic is forecast to double over the next two decades, and as a result, the sector is projected to be responsible for as much as 22% of annual global CO2 emissions by 2050.

For too long the aviation industry has held a privileged position in how it accounts for its impacts. Just 1% of the world’s population is responsible for more than 50% of aviation emissions, highlighting the profound injustice at the heart of the sector’s operations.

But without a serious attempt to fairly price – and therefore curb – this sector’s insatiable appetite for fossil fuels, any progress made in decarbonising other sectors will be undone by the aviation industry’s refusal to join the club.

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Enter ICAO’s flagship ‘emissions reduction’ scheme CORSIA, which stands for Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation. CORSIA may give the industry a prop when it is quizzed on decarbonisation.

But in reality it is ineffectual, with a baseline threshold for ‘acceptable’ emissions set at 85% of the highest-ever level of emissions recorded for international aviation to date. Clearly a scheme that doesn’t bring all aviation emissions into scope creates unnecessary loopholes for the industry.

And all too often we hear the same excuse from the industry – if we were to price aviation emissions, it would create unmanageable economic consequences, particularly for tourism-dependent climate-vulnerable countries. It also cites a lack of fuel availability as a rationale for not taking any decisive action.

But neither of these arguments fly.

Distribution of costs and revenues is key

Latest research by Opportunity Green shows that – while the effect on tourism must unquestionably be a consideration when pricing emissions from aviation – the impacts can be mitigated in how you distribute both the costs and the revenues from your pricing system.

Firstly, those causing the most emissions should pay the greatest share. First-class passengers can be responsible for up to four times the emissions of those in economy seats, so the price of emissions should be borne by those who are causing the most.

Secondly, the pricing mechanism itself can act as a market signal and play a vital role in bringing investment certainty for the development of truly sustainable fuels for aviation. This market signal would help to create the fiscal enabling environment that will unlock private-sector investment to accelerate the uptake of e-fuels (those that are derived from green hydrogen).

    And finally, where an emissions price has caused an economic impact in a tourism-dependent country, this can be compensated for through the equitable distribution of the revenues raised by the emissions pricing mechanism. This means that any losses incurred by climate-vulnerable and developing countries can be addressed as a priority.

    Climate legal obligations apply to aviation

    To make a meaningful step-change in ambition and pace on decarbonisation, we must also see states recognise the growing body of international legal obligations on climate change. Recent opinions from the International Court of Justice, International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, and Inter-American Court of Human Rights all confirm that states have binding obligations to reduce emissions, including from international aviation.

    ICAO must align its governance with these legal standards to remain credible.

    While hostile moves from the likes of the US and Saudi Arabia have attempted to shake the founding principles of multilateralism, we have also seen states come together in solidarity to push for ambition in tackling climate change.

    So far this year, we have seen an historic agreement made at the International Maritime Organisation in April, and a pioneering group of countries agree to implement solidarity levies on luxury aviation, demonstrating how climate action is both morally essential and economically effective.

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    It was 2022 when ICAO adopted its long-term global aspirational goal for international aviation to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 in support of the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C goal. Since then, we have seen no credible action to start moving the sector in the right direction.

    Now is the time to confront aviation’s free pass and show how a well-designed emissions price could not only cut emissions but also support the very countries most at risk from climate change.

    Unless its member states act in courage, solidarity and with the urgency that is demanded by the climate crisis, ICAO’s long-term goal won’t even make it off the runway.

    The post Will pricing emissions from flying affect tourism? Not if it’s done right appeared first on Climate Home News.

    Will pricing emissions from flying affect tourism? Not if it’s done right

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    It was a sweltering January afternoon in the Amazonian town of Puyo when Andrés Tapia realized his daughter’s public school fees were due. Like many Ecuadorians, he reached for his phone to make a mobile transfer.

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    We must invest in early-warning systems to tackle crises like Kenya’s drought

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    March 10, 2026

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    Dancliff Mbura is the advocacy and communications manager at Action Against Hunger Kenya. He works to influence policy and resource allocation and is an expert on multisectoral nutrition interventions.

    Just four years since the last devastating drought, when five consecutive rainy seasons failed, 3.3 million people in Kenya’s arid and semi-arid counties are facing acute hunger as yet another drought crisis deepens. It is visible everywhere – in the parched riverbeds, weakened animals, and the children, who are too quiet.

    Six months ago, the number of people facing acute hunger was 1.8 million. If nothing changes, by August, it will climb to 3.7 million, underscoring the need for urgent aid.

    We know the answers. Cash transfers allow families to purchase food in markets that are still functioning. Mobile health and nutrition outreach teams must meet communities where they are, not where facilities happen to be located, which could make them inaccessible. Emergency water provision is essential.

    But the resources are not there to address the growing needs. A coalition of humanitarian organisations working across Kenya’s drought-hit regions with the government has estimated the drought response would cost more than 30 billion Kenyan shillings ($232 million). Kenya’s government has released just 6 billion shillings so far.

    Reducing the damage

    Beyond the immediate response, however, we need to invest in systems that reduce the damage of future drought cycles in this climate-vulnerable region.

    Kenya has systems that support the generation of early-warning systems, such as the National Drought Management Authority’s monthly county and national early-warning bulletins with detailed early-warning data. What we need is a means to ensure that information reaches communities in time for them to act on it and make sure they have the resources they need to do that.

    One approach could be the establishment of village-level climate change and disaster hubs. These hubs would provide communities with simplified, actionable information, sometimes via dashboards on weather patterns and forecasts, and support them in generating locally relevant, cost-effective early actions.

    By engaging communities in this process, the government and development partners can complement these efforts with additional resources where needed. This approach fosters community ownership while simultaneously enhancing resilience to climate-related risks.

      With better technology, including AI-assisted climate modeling, we can generate precise early-warning information. When shared in a timely manner with communities and accompanied by support for early or anticipatory actions, this can help build resilience to frequent droughts and other crises.

      For example, with access to early-warning information, vulnerable communities could store water ahead of droughts, switch to short-maturity crops when reduced rainfall is forecast, and move livestock and food stocks to higher ground before floods hit. They could also apply preventative treatments to protect crops and animals from pest or disease outbreaks, and make smarter market decisions, such as selling livestock early before prices drop, to safeguard their income.

      Different in scale

      I have spent 15 years working on humanitarian response in Kenya. I have seen drought cycles come and go. But what is happening right now across our arid and semi-arid lands – the ASAL counties that cover nearly 80% of the country – is different in scale and in the depth of suffering it is causing.

      The October-December 2025 short rains delivered only 30 to 60% of the long-term average, making it one of the driest seasons since 1981. In some areas, rainfall failed almost entirely. More than 90% of open water sources have dried up in most parts of ASAL counties. Families are walking up to 20 km (12 miles) or more just to find water.

      A woman carries her tomato harvest from an Action Against Hunger climate-smart farming initiative that supports food security during drought. Photo credit: Action Against Hunger

      A woman carries her tomato harvest from an Action Against Hunger climate-smart farming initiative that supports food security during drought. Photo credit: Action Against Hunger

      Now, as we approach Kenya’s more reliable rainy season from March to May, projections are well below average across the hardest-hit northern counties, and we may be heading into a fourth consecutive poor season. For communities who have already exhausted every coping mechanism they have, another failed season could be catastrophic.

      More than 810,000 children between the ages of six months and five years are acutely malnourished. Nearly 117,000 pregnant and breastfeeding mothers are also acutely malnourished. The cycle of nutrition that healthy communities depend on is breaking down.

      And yet approximately half of severe acute malnutrition cases are going untreated. Only 24% of the nutrition and health outreach sites mapped across the arid and semi-arid counties are currently functioning.

      Impossible choices

      The economic devastation compounds everything. Livestock is the backbone of life in these pastoral lands. But in Marsabit county alone, more than 50,000 sheep and goats have died. Mandera has lost nearly 30,000 animals. Milk production has plummeted by 55%. As animals grow weaker, families receive less and less when they sell them. Livelihoods are collapsing in slow motion, and families are running out of options.

      That can lead to desperate decisions: more daughters are married off early in exchange for dowry like livestock, a practice that rises sharply in times of crisis. Girls are subjected to female genital mutilation so they can be considered ready for marriage. Children drop out of school as families are forced to move in search of better land.

      Every week that passes without a scaled-up response is a week in which children go hungry, animals die, and families make impossible choices. We are at a point where, if we do not act, lives will be lost – preventably.

      Not because we lacked the knowledge, not because we lacked the warning, but because we were not able to move fast enough.

      The post We must invest in early-warning systems to tackle crises like Kenya’s drought appeared first on Climate Home News.

      https://www.climatechangenews.com/2026/03/10/we-must-invest-in-early-warning-systems-to-tackle-crises-like-kenyas-drought/

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