Virus-Hit Airlines Get UN Body to Ease Climate-Reduction Plan

A U.N. body has eased a greenhouse gas reduction plan at the urging of the airline industry, which cited the coronavirus’ financial damage as an obstacle to achieving the plan’s intended targets.

The Montreal-based International Civil Aviation Organization’s 36-nation council agreed to make 2019 the sole baseline year for the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, or CORSIA, at a meeting on Tuesday.

The program, which takes effect next year, originally included 2020 as a baseline. But the steep drop in airlines emissions this year when the coronavirus virtually halted some travel would mean airlines would have to ...