Europe, U.S. and China to join ICAO’s aviation emissions scheme

On September 4, 44 member states of the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) committed to joining the International Civil Aviation’s (ICAO’s) global market-based measure (MBM) scheme from the very beginning. On the same day, both the U.S. and China jointly announced they anticipated being “early participants” in the global MBM. The MBM is also referred to by some as the Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). The aim of the MBM is help international aviation reach its goal of carbon-neutral growth by 2010.
On September 2, the ICAO issued a revised text of the resolution on the global MBM, which will be presented in early October to the ICAO for adoption. The resolution will allow participation to be on a voluntary basis for the pilot and first phases, which will run from 2021 – 2026. Only when the second phase is implemented will the MBM become mandatory, the period for which will be 2027 – 2035, though exemptions will be awarded to those countries which hold a very small share in international aviation activity.
Previously, both India and Russia have voiced their opposition to the Global MBM, but ECAC members have called on major aviation states to commit to the global MBM, ideally by making their intention clear before the ICAO assembly ends.
The CORSIA scheme would see carriers offsetting carbon emissions from international growth beyond 2019-2020. They would do so by buying credits from designation environment projects. Early estimates show that the cost of this will be approximately 0.2-0.6% of total revenue of international flights in 2025, rising to 0.5-1.4% by 2035.