Strategic Objective — Environmental Protection

Assistance to States

The high level of interest, cooperation and engagement of Member States and other stakeholders in the action plans initiative, and the substantial progress achieved, was due in large part to a robust capacity-building programme. This programme has been continued and further strengthened throughout 2014 in order to ensure that the progress made thus far is sustained and expanded.

An important aspect for the engagement of developing States is capacity-building and financial support. As part of efforts to provide further assistance to States and facilitate access to financing for the development and implementation of States’ action plans, ICAO established partnerships with the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), as well as with the European Commission (EC).

UNDP-GEF Project

Development is underway of ICAO’s joint assistance project with the UNDP-GEF, “Transforming the Global Aviation Sector: Emission Reduction from International Aviation”. The project objectives include identifying and facilitating the implementation of measures to reduce international aviation emissions. An important element of this 2 million USD project is a practical pilot project in Jamaica, consisting of the implementation of a CO₂ reduction measure that could be replicated in other States.

The project description document was submitted to UNDP in July, and it was approved by UNDP in August. Minor comments from the GEF were received in September, and the project was officially approved by the GEF in November.

EC Project

Following the signing of the agreement between ICAO and the EC on 17 December 2013 on the ICAO-EC joint assistance project, “Capacity-Building for CO₂ Mitigation from International Aviation”, 14 States from the African and Caribbean regions were selected for inclusion in the project. The estimated duration of this 6.5 million Euro project is 42 months, with the overarching objective of contributing to international, regional and national efforts to address growing emissions from international aviation.

The selected States confirmed their willingness to participate in the project, and national focal points were nominated. The project encompasses three areas of activities in the selected States: development of States’ action plans; setting up of an aviation environmental system; and identification and implementation of measures to reduce aviation emissions.

ICAO has hired consultants to continue work on this project. The next steps include the hiring of local consultants for the African and Caribbean regions. The ICAO Secretariat is currently revising the inception report for submission to the EC.

Inception seminars were planned in both regions; in the Caribbean region in the Dominican Republic in December 2014, and in the African region in Cameroon in February 2015. Equipment for the national focal points has been procured.