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Efforts to offset emissions from international flights have been kept on track during the current 221 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.
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.
