The letter was updated on 27 May with a new signature

Dear ICAO Council members,

The ongoing global health crisis has led to a drop in air traffic which in turn has already caused tremendous economic hardship for the aviation sector’s workers.

This situation has also led to a drop in CO2 emissions from international flights in 2020. This will result in lower baseline emissions for the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). As CORSIA’s stated purpose is to help the international aviation sector achieve “carbon-neutral growth from 2020”, the ICAO Assembly set CORSIA’s baseline at the average of 2019 and 2020 emissions.

Last month, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) asked the ICAO Council to change this baseline, from the current 2019-2020 average to a 2019-only level. This change would result in significantly lower offsetting requirements for airlines compared to the current CORSIA design. In fact, under most recovery scenarios, the change sought by IATA would eliminate all offsetting requirements for the duration of the CORSIA pilot phase and potentially several years thereafter. This would result in a de facto postponement of the start of the CORSIA by three to five years.

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