July 2026 newsletter
Supporting ICAO’s work programme
ICAO Aviation Climate Week, June 2026
Aviation Climate Week took place in June 2026 in Montreal, on the theme of One global path: advancing net-zero aviation.
The event is ICAO’s annual global platform for advancing the sector’s environmental and climate agenda. It brought together States, industry leaders and experts to review various items aimed at supporting the global net-zero carbon emissions goal by 2050, including:
- the outcomes of the 42nd ICAO Assembly
- progress on the ICAO global framework for SAF, lower carbon aviation fuels (LCAF) and other aviation-related cleaner energies adopted at ICAO CAAF/3, as well as the SAF deployment goal
- non-CO2 emissions
- next-generation technologies
- financing mechanisms (including the Finvest Hub)
- CORSIA’s 10th anniversary
- capacity building and training for the long-term aspirational goal (ACT-LTAG) programme.
Haldane actively participated, contributing to a panel session on LTAG monitoring and reporting, during which he shared industry perspectives on multilateral progress, SAF scaling and the need for accelerated policy and investment support. A lot of time was spent in bilateral discussions with States and other industry organisations.
CORSIA and the EU emissions trading scheme
Climate Week celebrated CORSIA’s 10th anniversary as the only global, market-based measure for international aviation emissions. However, on the sidelines industry participants, including ATAG, reinforced the need for a harmonised, ICAO-led approach to avoid overlapping or conflicting schemes. This came against the backdrop of two recent EU developments: the filing of differences exempting intra-EU flights from CORSIA and a proposal to extend the EU ETS on routes outside of EU borders. Aviation Climate Week thus served as a platform to advocate for strengthening CORSIA globally while highlighting the challenges posed by regional measures.
The Destination 2050 coalition issued an open letter in which it urged the European Commission to maintain the current intra-EU / EEA scope, warning that any unilateral extension could harm European aviation’s competitiveness, distort markets, and undermine the multilateral ICAO framework. ATAG also sent a letter to Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission President, in which we shared similar concerns and urged EU Member States to fully support CORSIA by:
- applying CORSIA to all international flights, including those between EU Member States
- ensuring that CORSIA remains the sole global mechanism applied to international flights outside the EU
- working constructively with the collective international community on the next stage of international aviation climate action, to accelerate SAF deployment, while working towards the long-term goal of net zero carbon by 2050.
ICAO 7th Worldwide Air Transport Conference
The ICAO Worldwide Air Transport Conference is held roughly every 10 years and will take place from 16-20 November 2026 in Montreal. It is one of ICAO’s main priorities for the year. It does not have a specific climate change focus (in fact, there is a desire to avoid relitigating discussions already had at last year’s Assembly) but will consider a wide range of issues including: financing new energies, development, growth, aviation’s workforce and air transport’s benefits. The overarching theme will be: “Air Transport: Powering Global Connectivity, Economic Development and Resilience in a Dynamic World”.
ATAG plans to participate in this important event, where we will launch the 2026 edition of Aviation: Benefits Beyond Borders, whose themes strongly overlap with those of the conference.