COP 26: International Aviation Climate Ambition Coalition declaration

The International Aviation Climate Ambition Coalition was launched at the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow. The coalition has issued a declaration that its member states have committed to working together to support the adoption of an ambitious global goal for international aviation CO2 emissions by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). They also commit to supporting specific measures to reduce aviation emissions including sustainable aviation fuels, the CORSIA global offsetting scheme and new aircraft technologies.

The declaration recognises international aviation’s material contribution to climate change through its CO2 emissions, along with its additional, but less well-defined, contribution associated with non-CO2 emissions. It also states that despite the impact of COVID-19, the international aviation industry and the number of global air passengers and volume of cargo is expected to increase significantly over the next 30 years. The coalition acknowledges the impact of COVID-19 on the global aviation sector and the need to develop initiatives that enable the aviation industry to continue to “build back better and grow in a sustainable manner”.

The coalition commits to:

1. Working together, both through ICAO and other complementary cooperative initiatives, to advance ambitious actions to reduce aviation CO2 emissions at a rate consistent with efforts to limit the global average temperature increase to 1.5°C.

2. Supporting the adoption by ICAO of an ambitious long-term aspirational goal consistent with the above-referenced temperature limit, and in view of the industry’s commitments towards net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.

3. Ensuring the maximum effectiveness of CORSIA, including by:

• supporting efforts at ICAO and working with other ICAO member states to implement and strengthen CORSIA as an important measure to address aviation emissions, including to expand participation in CORSIA, and participating in CORSIA as soon as possible, if our state has not done so already.
• taking steps domestically to implement Annex 16 Volume IV of the Chicago Convention as fully as possible and in a timely manner, including with respect to enforcement of domestic regulations, legislation, or Implementation arrangements.
• advancing the environmental ambition of the scheme in the course of undertaking the CORSIA Periodic Reviews.
• working to ensure that double counting is avoided through the host state’s application of corresponding adjustments in accounting for its nationally determined contribution under the Paris Agreement for the mitigation underlying all CORSIA Eligible Emissions Units and, where needed, CORSIA Eligible Fuels, used toward CORSIA compliance.

4. Promoting the development and deployment, through international and national measures, of sustainable aviation fuels that reduce lifecycle emissions and contribute to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular avoiding competition with food production for land use and water supply.

5. Promoting the development and deployment, through international and national measures, of innovative new low- and zero-carbon aircraft technologies that can reduce aviation CO2 emissions.

6. Preparing up-to-date state action plans detailing ambitious and concrete national action to reduce aviation emissions and submitting these plans to ICAO well in advance of the 41st ICAO Assembly, where such plans have not already been updated in line with ICAO Assembly Resolution A40-18, paragraph 11.

7. Promoting capacity building support for the implementation of CORSIA and other ICAO climate measures, including to advance uptake of freely available tools and to expand regional expertise, accreditation and access to markets for sustainable aviation fuels and CORSIA Eligible Emissions Units.

8. Convening periodically at both ministerial and official levels with a view to advancing and reviewing progress on the above commitments.