Montréal, 26 November 2020 – Efforts to offset emissions from international flights have been kept on track during the current 221st Session of the ICAO Council, with new decisions being adopted by the 36-country body on eligibility units and sustainability certification schemes supporting the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).
The latest Council endorsements mean that all implementation elements for CORSIA are now complete, and that everything is prepared for the start of its pilot phase in 2021. Details around these latest decisions are available here.
ICAO Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano remarked on the welcomed developments that “ICAO set out a vision for carbon-neutral growth in international aviation, and this week we have seen that vision bear fruit. The Council’s decisions on eligible emissions units and sustainability certification schemes are the final steps necessary for CORSIA’s timely implementation.”
“The steps that ICAO has taken to address climate change go hand-in-hand with our efforts to promote the sustainable growth and long-term prosperity of international aviation,” added ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu. “CORSIA’s implementation elements are ready, and States and airlines are ready to make use of them.”
Pursuant to recommendations from its CORSIA Technical Advisory Body (TAB), the Council decided on a second set of eligible emissions units for use with offsetting requirements in the 2021-2023 pilot phase of CORSIA.
The units were issued to activities under approved programmes, subject to their respective scope of eligibility and eligibility dates.
Based on the recommendations of the Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP), the Council also approved the organizations which are now eligible to certify the sustainability and life-cycle emissions values of CORSIA eligible fuels.
Since the adoption of the CORSIA-related Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) in 2018, ICAO has developed the remaining elements needed for the programme’s implementation.
This includes the ICAO CORSIA CO2 Estimation and Reporting Tool (CERT), harmonized methodologies to account for life-cycle CO2 reductions from sustainable aviation fuels, and the CORSIA Central Registry (CCR) to facilitate the CO2 reporting from States to ICAO.
The final building blocks for completing the CORSIA implementation package were set in place this week, with the agreement on the second round of eligible emissions units and the sustainability certification schemes.
Resources for Editors
ICAO CORSIA
ICAO and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
About ICAO
A specialized agency of the United Nations, ICAO was created by governments in 1944 to support their diplomacy on international air transport matters. Since that time, countries have adopted over 12,000 standards and practices through ICAO which help to align their national regulations relevant to aviation safety, security, efficiency, capacity and environmental protection, enabling a truly global network to be realized. ICAO forums also provide opportunities for advice and advocacy to be shared with government decision-makers by industry groups, civil society NGOs, and other officially-recognized air transport stakeholders, and the agency supports global air transport development through a variety of outreach, assistance, and capacity-building activities.
General Contact
communications@icao.int
Twitter: @ICAO
Media Contact
William Raillant-Clark
Communications Officer
wraillantclark@icao.int
+1 514-954-6705![]( "Call: +1 514-954-6705")
+1 514-409-0705![]( "Call: +1 514-409-0705")
(mobile)
Twitter: @wraillantclark
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/raillantclark/
