Governments have agreed airlines should come under a worldwide carbon-cutting scheme at the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO's) 38th annual assembly.

However, the details of such programmes or taxes will not be negotiated until 2016, while no further update on the potential delay of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) was made. 

A spokesperson told the BBC: "It's a very positive outcome. After more than 15 years of talks we got a deal. The reality is, if it hadn't been for EU pressure [through extending the ETS to aviation] this probably wouldn't have happened."

The EU - which wants to be carbon neutral by 2020 - had previously implemented ETS, charging airlines for emissions when flying in Europe. However, this was cancelled for intercontinental flights for 2013 as the EC wanted to offer more time to reach a global consensus.

ICAO also voted to prevent nations from implementing their own schemes without a worldwide agreement first - although there are concerns over if this would be legally binding.

It was the assembly's largest meeting in history, with 1,845 individual participants from a combination of 184 member states and 54 observers.