Overview

After six years of negotiations, 191 governments in Oct. 2016 agreed at the UN aviation body ICAO on the design elements of a global market-based measure for international aviation.

CORSIA – the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation – is the world’s first market mechanism for dealing with climate change from an industrial sector. It aims to help meet ICAO’s previously-enshrined goal to achieve carbon neutral growth after 2020 and it is due to apply in several phases:

• 2021 to 2023 – a ‘pilot’ voluntary phase of countries that choose to be part of the scheme. As the agreement was being crafted, some 65 states representing more than 85% of global civil air traffic and an estimated 80% of post-2020 emissions growth volunteered to be included in the scheme from the beginning.
• 2024 to 2026 – the first implementation phase, also on a voluntary basis.
• 2027 to 2035 – the second phase, which will include most states except the least developed, small island states and countries with a small amount of international air traffic (equivalent to less than 0.5% of global traffic).

CORSIA will compensate for the CO2 emissions generated by international aviation activities above 2020 levels by obligating airlines to buy and surrender emission units generated by carbon-cutting projects in other unrelated sectors, as well as a few initiatives in the aviation sector, for example cutting GHGs at airports or from taxiing planes.

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