Three years ago, ICAO Member States took a historic decision at the 41st ICAO Assembly: adopting the long-term aspirational goal for international aviation to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. That moment was about a joint vision for the future of air transport. Three years later, we find ourselves in the same room at the 42nd ICAO Assembly, highlighting the progress made and how to tackle the challenges ahead. Three years on, it’s about taking concrete action to turn that vision into reality.
Over the past two weeks, governments and stakeholders from across the air transport sector came together in Montreal to chart the next phase of global aviation’s path to net zero carbon. Two themes dominated the environmental debates: how to accelerate the scale-up of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) and how to ensure sufficient availability of CORSIA-eligible emissions units to support near-term decarbonisation. Other items included the need for more support to help ensure all States are able to undertake decarbonisation, as well as some important discussions on how the air transport industry needs to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate.
We as an industry can be proud of what has been achieved under the leadership of ICAO. Not only do we now have a global framework for SAF in place (solidified at the 2023 ICAO CAAF/3 meeting), but capacity-building programmes like ACT-SAF and ACT-CORSIA are already supporting States. Already 130 States volunteer to participate in the world’s first market mechanism, CORSIA. Meanwhile, ICAO’s Finvest Hub is beginning to connect investors with SAF projects.
Along the way, the industry has supported and encouraged these ICAO initiatives. We continue to support in many ways the fundamental work ICAO undertakes on capacity building and the Finvest Hub. The 42nd Assembly confirmed this support once more. Many States backing aviation’s climate mission mirrored the sector’s calls for harmonised SAF standards and certification pathways, financing support for developing economies, and accelerating ICAO’s technical evaluations so that new feedstocks and fuels can enter the system more quickly. On CORSIA, many States reaffirmed its status as the only global market-based measure for aviation.
Despite 2050 sounding far away, we do not have the luxury of time. SAF scale-up must be robust and steep in the coming five years. To meet this challenge, governments need to put in place policy frameworks that unlock investment and de-risk production. The energy sector must prioritise aviation in its clean energy strategies and the investor and finance community must step up with creative mechanisms to bring capital to projects worldwide.
On CORSIA, the industry is concerned about the availability of eligible units in the near term. These units not only enable compliance, they also channel climate finance to mitigation projects in developing economies. We urge continued progress and a renewed spirit of cooperation and opportunity by all States to help meet this challenge.
The challenge of non-CO2 emissions from the sector, particularly contrails, has now become a focus for many. In some ways this is a simpler challenge to tackle – and one we can work on with support from just the research community. But whilst there are some potentially easy wins, we do not yet have enough understanding of the operational implications of contrail mitigation measures to be able to build it into daily practice. Regulatory and policy actions are premature.
During the Assembly, the sector encouraged large scale flight trials. The work of the technical taskforce at ICAO on this matter is vital, as is coordinated research being undertaken by academic partners to better understand the options we can put into our toolkit.
Some proposals emerging outside ICAO, such as global aviation taxes, risk distracting from the real work already underway. As we made clear during the Assembly, CORSIA is operational, designed by States, and able to deliver climate finance today. This should be our collective focus.
It is important not to be distracted by other measures that seek to target aviation as simply a source of finance. The Global Solidarity Levies Task Force was supposed to look at a whole range of options for raising climate finance. After two years of work, it has managed to come up with one possible source – aviation. There are no details of how this levy will work, how much it will cost or importantly what the impact will be on trade, tourism and business connections. It will almost certainly not reduce aviation carbon emissions. And based on how loose it is looking, the money raised might not even make it to the developing nations that need the support.
CORSIA should be our focus. Let’s get the climate finance flowing with a system which has already been designed, adopted and is in action right now.
The overarching message from this Assembly is clear: the foundation is strong, but the next five years are decisive. If we want to be on track for net-zero by 2050, governments and industry must work together now to:
The challenge of our lifetime is here. ICAO has shown that aviation can unite globally around a climate strategy. Now is the time to implement, scale and deliver.
Despite some deeply political issues being aired at the ICAO Assembly this year, these gatherings are also a reminder of the importance of multilateralism. Aviation is a global community and a global system. Meeting colleagues working to improve safety, security and sustainability in countries from all over the globe is a humbling experience that reiterates the vital connections that air transport helps to foster and the incredibly important role of a body like ICAO to ensure better connectivity for all. The ICAO motto “no country left behind” is more than just a nice statement – it is a mission all of us in the industry should promote in everything we do.