Executive Summary On October 6th, Member States of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) agreed on an offsetting scheme to compensate for emissions growth from 2020 levels. The new scheme, called the Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), falls short of achieving the goal of carbon neutral growth in 2020 (CNG2020), let…
Summary Aviation accounts for approximately 4.9% of all global warming1 and is projected to grow by up to 300% by 2050 if left unaddressed. In order to limit the global average temperature rise to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, international aviation must contribute to the global effort to reduce emissions. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the international body responsible…
From 30 November to 12 December 2015, Parties to the UNFCCC met in Paris to negotiate a new global climate treaty.
The Paris Agreement was a remarkable outcome, especially after the failures of Copenhagen. Almost all involved, including Carbon Market Watch, seemed surprised at how positive the outcome was. However, expectations had been carefully managed in the preceding years, so that aspirations of environmentalists to have a treaty that reflected the scientific reality by dividing up the remaining global carbon budget, had been downplayed into unreality.
Only very few countries have outlined in their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) that they will use international trading as a means to help achieve their climate goals. However, despite the limited role of markets expressed by most industrialised countries in their INDCs, such as the EU and the US, the political reality regarding domestic carbon pricing schemes looks different: jurisdictions responsible for 40% of the global economy have already implemented carbon pricing mechanisms.
ICAO is developing a Global Market Based Mechanism to achieve the goal of carbon neutral growth in the industry post-2020. Work is currently in progress to define which credits should be eligible to be used as offsets in this market.
Climate change is happening. Global average temperatures have already increased by 0.8ºC above preindustrial levels. Current trends imply a warming of 2.9-5.2ºC by the end of the century, which, even at the low end of the range, will cause great impacts on the planet and threaten many areas of human life, including health, food security, economic growth, societal change, and drinking water. 2015 is a key year for global efforts to combat climate change and keep warming under 2ºC, the warming limit agreed in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations.
Air travel accounts for 5-14% of global climate emissions and is growing rapidly. Nevertheless, aviation emissions remain unregulated. Pressure is mounting on the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to agree to a mechanism to reduce aviation emissions during their next triennial Assembly in September 2013. The aviation sector must reduce its emissions if we are to protect ourselves from severe climate disruption.
Science tells us that aviation accounts for about 5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions because of the CO2 that is emitted when jet fuel is burned. But aviation not only causes global warming through CO2 emissions, other factors, such as contrails and cirrus clouds also lead to significant warming. If all these factors are taken into account, aviation may currently be responsible for up to 14% of man-made climate change (Lee et al., 2009).
CAN-I position paper on Market-based measure for international aviation including recommendations for quality restrictions for offset credits.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is currently developing a global market-based measure to address greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation. An agreement is expected in September 2013 at ICAO’s triennial Assembly. A group of experts was established in 2012 to provide technical advice to ICAO’s Council. The group’s technical suggestions now include a mandatory…
Carbon pricing 
International transport 
Climate governance 
Fair climate action