Commission welcomes landmark deal on CO2 standard for aircraft emissions

Commission welcomes landmark deal on CO₂ standard for aircraft emissions

The Commission welcomes the agreement reached yesterday within the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on the first ever-global standard to cap CO₂ emissions from aircraft.

EU Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said, "This agreement is an important step to curb aviation emissions. An ambitious climate policy is an integral part of the Commission’s plan to create an Energy Union, and a priority of the new Aviation Strategy. The EU played a central role in brokering this deal, as it did at the COP21 in Paris. I hope this will create further momentum for the creation of a Global Market-Based Measure to offset CO₂ emissions from international aviation, which we hope to achieve this autumn at the ICAO General Assembly."

Background

Meeting in Montreal, the ICAO's Committee on Aviation and Environmental Protection (CAEP) agreed on a CO₂ standard, which will guide the certification of aircraft towards greater fuel-efficiency. The stringency and the applicability dates, which the CO₂ standard imposes, will depend on the weight of the aircraft and whether it concerns a "new type" aircraft or an "in-production" aircraft. For large new aircraft types, a very ambitious standard was agreed, to incentivise ever-greater fuel efficiency performance of future aircraft fleets. For such aircraft types, the standard will apply as of 2020. By 2028, existing aircraft types will also have to apply the new standard. Over the period until 2040, the CO₂ standard could help save up to 650 million tonnes of CO₂.

This agreement concludes six years of international negotiations. It will be brought before the 39^th ICAO Assembly in September for political endorsement, and is expected to be formally adopted by the ICAO Council in early 2017.

See also: http://www.icao.int/Newsroom/Pages/New-ICAO-Aircraft-CO2-Standard-One-Step-Closer-To-Final-Adoption.aspx