With some delay - due to the coronavirus pandemic - the Commission welcomed, on Wednesday 18 March, the decision of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which approved, on Saturday 14 March, the emission units eligible for the CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation) compensation system by limiting the number of poor quality credits (see EUROPE 12447/17).
Invited to react, a spokesperson for the institution replied to EUROPE: “The Commission welcomes the decision by ICAO. It gives us important implementing elements for CORSIA and its environmental integrity. The scheme is now ready for implementation from January 2021 by the States which, according to information from ICAO, have already declared that they intend to take part in the voluntary phase and represent around 76% of international traffic”.
The pilot phase of this global market measure will begin in January 2021.
“We will continue to closely follow the implementation work and future developments to avoid any double counting and to ensure the environmental integrity of the units. The Commission continues to call for robust rules and calls on all ICAO States to join CORSIA from the start”, the spokeswoman said.
The Commission reports that it has already started preparatory work on the revision of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) for aviation, in particular on key issues such as the level of auctioning of allowances for this sector and the implementation of CORSIA. The EU will implement CORSIA through an amendment to the ETS Directive.
It should be recalled that the revised ETS Directive extended the EU ETS derogation for long-haul flights until the end of 2023, the time for the first phase of CORSIA to begin. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)