The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has marked the tenth anniversary of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) assembly resolution that established the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), calling on governments to reinforce the scheme’s foundations. CORSIA, adopted at the 2016 ICAO Assembly, established the first global market-based measure for an industrial sector and followed the Paris Agreement by a year. More than 130 countries now participate in the scheme, which IATA expects to have mitigated approximately 200 million tonnes of CO2 by the end of this year; from 2027 it is estimated to cover approximately 85% of global emissions, and up to $120 billion could be mobilised in climate finance through to the end of the scheme to support emissions reduction and carbon removal projects worldwide. “As the first global, sector-wide climate agreement for aviation, CORSIA showcases the best of international collaboration: a global solution to a global challenge. It preserves a level playing field for aviation while channeling climate finance to support emissions reductions around the world. And in a world increasingly characterized by fragmentation, that is a powerful reminder of what can be achieved when states work together. CORSIA is already a landmark achievement. With broad participation, consistent implementation, and continued support from governments, it can become one of the most successful examples of climate action and climate finance in practice,” said Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s Senior Vice President Sustainability and Chief Economist.

EU ETS review

The tenth anniversary coincides with the European Union’s review of the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS); the EU is considering proposals that would extend the EU ETS to destinations within 5,000km of the EU, using Frankfurt as its geographic centre, and create a mechanism through which comparable carbon-pricing systems could be developed with third countries. “The EU ETS review should reinforce CORSIA as the global framework for international aviation, not encourage overlapping regional or bilateral systems. Europe will achieve more for climate action and its own competitiveness by directing aviation revenues towards Sustainable Aviation Fuels, infrastructure and emerging technologies than by adding carbon costs that do not address the sector’s underlying energy constraints,” said Thomas Reynaert, IATA’s Senior Vice President External Affairs.

IATA says the lack of an impact assessment on widening the scope of the EU ETS leaves no clear picture of the potential effects on third countries, international connectivity, competitiveness and the functioning of CORSIA, despite its own estimate that the proposed scope expansion would increase EU ETS compliance costs by 40% to EUR280 billion over the 2027-2040 period. To accelerate aviation decarbonisation while supporting the EU’s competitiveness, resilience and long-term energy security, IATA says the EU ETS review should reinforce CORSIA by ensuring its full and unified implementation for international aviation without extending the EU ETS extra-territorially, and by removing the proposed “EU ETS as a Service” mechanism, which it says would encourage parallel regional or bilateral carbon-pricing systems alongside CORSIA. It also calls on the EU to support Sustainable Aviation Fuel production by strengthening the SAF allowances mechanism, with greater support available immediately rather than only from 2029, and by removing geographic production restrictions and other conditions that limit support for sustainability-compliant SAF pathways, while ringfencing aviation-generated ETS revenues for SAF production, infrastructure and emerging aviation technologies to strengthen Europe’s competitiveness. IATA says these recommendations have been shared with European policymakers as part of the ongoing legislative process.