The Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation CORSIA will bring together aviation sector actors from around the world to Helsinki for a two-day meeting that begins today. The International Civil Aviation Organization ICAO will bring together airlines, aviation organisations and public authorities to focus on the implementation and development of the new emissions scheme.
The event held in Helsinki is aimed primarily at European and North Atlantic states and is one of the five workshops on CORSIA that will be arranged by the ICAO, and together these workshops will cover all parts of the world. The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom will organise the Helsinki event between 26 and 27 March 2019, following a request received from the ICAO.
“We here in Finland are thoroughly committed to reach the emissions goals for aviation, and we want to provide our strong support for the implementation of CORSIA. Arranging the ICAO’s CORSIA workshop is a very pleasant task for us, and we hope that the results of the workshop will help encourage other actors from around the globe to reach for even more ambitious heights when it comes to the climate goals of the aviation sector,” says Director General Kirsi Karlamaa from Traficom.
In Helsinki, the ICAO will help representatives from various airlines and aviation organisations as well as public authorities familiarise themselves with the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, or CORSIA. The workshops will focus especially on emissions-related monitoring, reporting and verification procedures.
CORSIA aims for carbon-neutral growth in aviation from 2020 onwards
Aviation represents the first transport sector that has succeeded in forming a common and global emissions trading system for reducing carbon emissions. The CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation) system was taken into use at the start of 2019.
A great deal of work has been done to reduce the carbon emissions of the aviation sector, and these efforts have focused especially on aircraft technology, alternative sustainable fuels, energy-efficient aviation activities and airspace use. However, due to the strong growth in air traffic, a market-based emissions system is also needed.
CORSIA’s goal is to ensure that the growth in aviation will become carbon-neutral from 2020 onwards, and it will achieve this by having airlines compensate their growth in international aviation emissions with emission units purchased from a carbon exchange.
“The ICAO Council approved the criteria for the emission units at the beginning of March. The Nordic countries have been strong participants in the expert group that will continue the work by evaluating the project programmes that will produce the emission units on the basis of the approved criteria, and by issuing recommendations on the emission units that are to be used to the ICAO Council,” explains Chief Adviser Katja Lohko-Soner.
CORSIA emission monitoring obligation initiated at the start of the year
At the start of the year, the emission monitoring obligation for airlines began within the framework of CORSIA. The information that is being collected now will be used to calculate the benchmark emission level for future emission growth. This benchmark level will be based on the average level of emissions in 2019 and 2020.
The ICAO standards and recommended operating procedures for the monitoring, reporting and verification of emissions came into force on 1 January 2019. It is for this reason that, at the beginning of March, the European Commission submitted a proposal for a regulation concerning CORSIA’s MRV (monitoring, reporting and verification system) regulations, which will be reviewed in the coming months by the EU Parliament and Council.
CORSIA will be voluntary for ICAO member states between 2021 and 2026 and will then become mandatory for the period of 2027 and 2035. The emission compensation obligation that will begin in 2021 will be calculated for routes between member states that belong to the system, whereas all airlines must report their emissions for all routes between ICAO member states. Currently 79 states have signed up for CORSIA’s voluntary phase, which covers almost 77 per cent of all international aviation.
Further information:
Chief Adviser Katja Lohko-Soner, tel. +358 29 534 6077, katja.lohko-soner(at)traficom.fi, Twitter @katjalohkosoner