CORSIA, the global market-based measure approved by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in October 2016 to address the sector’s CO2 emissions, has major shortcomings in terms of governance structure and transparency which could compromise implementation of the Paris climate agreement, warned the NGO Carbon Market Watch on Tuesday 14 November in Bonn where COP 23 is taking place (6-17 November).
The warning came only a few days after the European Parliament approved the inter-institutional agreement extending the derogation enjoyed by long-haul flights to the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS) until the end of 2023, when CORSIA begins its first phase (see EUROPE 11899).
At issue is the narrow way that ICAO interprets the transparency and public participation requirements in the decision-making process, according to a report published the same day by Columbia Law School, coinciding with a meeting of the ICAO Council in Montreal launching the process of formal approval of the CORSIA rules. This report calls for shortcomings to be addressed in order to enable public scrutiny, without which CORSIA would be less effective and lack legitimacy.
The report is grist to the NGO’s mill. Carbon Market Watch warns against continued lack of public scrutiny in drafting the rules of the global market-based measure. These rules have to be designed and detailed extremely rigorously in order to avoid “serious and direct implications for the Paris Agreement”, stresses Eva Filzmoser, Carbon Market Watch's Executive Director.
The Aarhus Convention guarantees the public rights of participation in the decision-making process and access to justice on environmental issues. Carbon Market Watch points out that, while ICAO’s general rules promote public participation, the same cannot be said as far as CORSIA is concerned. The NGO is critical that, for the final phase of the CORSIA agreement, the outcome of political meetings and important documents relating to the development of the CORSIA have been kept locked away from the public domain. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)