Environmental Protection is one of the Strategic Objectives of ICAO. Work in this area has been undertaken by ICAO since the late 1960s, first focusing on the establishment of international policies and standards related to aircraft noise, but gradually expanding to other subject areas such as local air quality and subsequently climate change.
According to most recent figures from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), aviation (domestic and international) remains approximately 2% of global CO2 emissions produced by human activity; international aviation is responsible for approximately 1.3% of global CO2 emissions.
Under ICAO’s mandate, aviation has consistently invested in better aircraft technology and the improvement in efficiency of air transport operations. Significant technological progress has been made in the aviation sector, with aircraft produced today being about 80 per cent more fuel efficient per passenger kilometre than in the 1960s.
Total aviation emissions, however, are forecasted to grow in the coming decades. Projected total annual improvements in aircraft fuel efficiency of the order of 1–2% are expected to be largely surpassed by traffic growth of around 5% each year. The most recent estimates, based on analysis conducted by the Council’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP), anticipate international aviation fuel consumption growing somewhere between 2.8 to 3.9 times by 2040 compared to the 2010 levels. For further details on the analysis conducted by CAEP, please refer to
document A38-WP/26 presented by the Council at the 38th Session of the ICAO Assembly.
In October 2013, the 38th Session of the ICAO Assembly adopted
Resolution A38-18, which constitutes the consolidated statement of continuing ICAO policies and practices related to climate change. Under this Resolution, the Assembly resolved that ICAO and its Member States, with relevant organizations, would work together to strive to achieve a collective medium term global aspirational goal of keeping the global net CO
2 emissions from international aviation from 2020 at the same level (so-called “carbon neutral growth from 2020”). The Assembly also defined a basket of measures designed to help achieve the ICAO’s global aspirational goal. This basket includes non-market-based measures such as lighter airframes, higher engine performance and new certification standards, operational improvements (e.g. improved ground operations and air traffic management) and sustainable alternative fuels; as well as market-based measures (MBMs).
The aggregate environmental benefit achieved by non-MBMs will be insufficient for the sector to reach its aspirational goal of carbon-neutral growth from 2020. A global MBM scheme is a cost-effective and complementary way for international aviation to meet its aspirational goal as part of the basket of measures on a temporary basis. This was preferable to having a patchwork of regional and local measures that are not harmonized and could create inefficiencies in the system without any certainty of delivering environmental benefits.
