TODAY’S SUPPLY OF CARBON CREDITS AND TOMORROW’S DEMAND FROM CORSIA

Carbon Market Watch Factsheet

Summary

The concern that too few credits will be available to meet demand from airlines under the future aviation carbon market CORSIA is misplaced. Today’s supply from the three largest voluntary programmes alone is enough to cover CORSIA’s demand until well into 2025. 

This would leave five years for new projects to start and generate credits for the rest of CORSIA. The eligibility decision to be taken by States at the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) should, therefore, focus on the quality of the units, rather than agreeing on a weak interpretation of the criteria in order to inflate the supply of credits. In addition, allowing the use of credits from the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) could flood the market with billions of units and undermine the integrity of CORSIA.

Finally, clear rules to govern the invalidation of CORSIA units must be agreed given that, presently, there are no rules in place to prevent double-counting of emission reductions.