Adopting the rules to implement the CORSIA system that was approved in 2016 to stabilise international civil aviation’s greenhouse gas emissions at the 2020 level by means of an offsetting system is of crucial importance for the EU. These rules will have to be sufficiently robust to maintain the environmental integrity and the credibility of this new global market-based measure.
That was the message delivered on 18 and 19 June by European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulç at the meeting of the ICAO Council in Montreal (11-29 June) where the said rules are due to be adopted (see EUROPE 12094).
The sustainability of the alternative fuels that provide the right to credits will be one of the criteria against which the new rules will be judged, avoiding so-called “clean” fossil fuels and fuel produced from palm oil paving the way to credits.
In order to be eligible for credits, aircraft fuel must emit 10% less greenhouse gas than conventional kerosene on a life cycle basis and must not be derived from land cleared after 2009, in line with the land-use change criterion.
“These two criteria have been set. We want them to be maintained”, a high-ranking EU official told a small group of journalists. He added: “The EU has proposed further criteria that it would like to see included in timely fashion. It’s possible to strengthen the sustainability criteria. The ICAO Council recognises this. ICAO intends to work to build them in before 2023”.
However, this source acknowledged, many countries are concerned because these criteria do not exist and some feel that this falls outside ICAO competence.
In addition to greenhouse gas emissions and land-use change, the criteria, which had been approved by the ICAO environment committee before being dropped, relate to: - water use, air quality, conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services; - responsible waste management and use of chemicals; - human and labour rights; - water use rights; - local and social development of poor regions; - food security. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)