The Council of ICAO today agreed to use 2019 emissions instead of 2020 figures as baseline for the CORSIA implementation during its pilot phase from 2021 to 2023, to avoid “inappropriate economic burden on the aviation industry”.
ICAO Assembly Resolution A40-19, which defines the CORSIA, includes the capability to adjust CORSIA both in case of an unforeseen circumstance that affects the sustainability of the scheme or an inappropriate economic burden such as that caused by COVID-19, as well as for reviewing the need for adjusting the design elements of the scheme through periodic reviews every three years the UN body said in a statement.
“The impact of the COVID-19, significantly lowering international aviation operations, traffic and emissions in 2020, would lead to a consequential reduction in the CORSIA baseline, calculated as the average of 2019 and 2020 emissions from the sector.
This, in turn, would create an inappropriate economic burden to aeroplane operators, due to the need to offset more emissions although they are flying less and generating less emissions,” said the statement.
“Council States today have made a measured assessment and have come to the most reasonable solution available given our current and very extraordinary circumstances,” said ICAO Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano.
In a sign of the potential pushback to the move US lobby group the Environmental Defense Fund said the move set a troubling precedent for the legitimacy of future decision-making by the UN’s aviation body.
“Today’s Council decision does not alter ICAO’s standards for carbon credits, including its March decision on credit eligibility, or its rules for sustainable aviation fuels. These standards are important precedents for the Paris Agreement and emerging legislation.