Strategic Objective — Environmental Protection

Assistance to States

United Nations Development Programme – Global Environment Facility (UNDP-GEF) Project

The ICAO – United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – Global Environment Facility (GEF) joint assistance project “Transforming the Global Aviation Sector: Emission Reduction from International Aviation”, includes the development of guidance and supporting mechanisms to assist in the identification and implementation of measures to reduce aviation CO₂ emissions, as well as a practical pilot project in Jamaica consisting of the implementation of a measure that could be replicated in other States.

The project coordinator was recruited, and the preparatory work to develop guidance documents and supporting mechanisms as well as to implement the pilot project was launched.

European Union (EU) Project

The ICAO and European Union (EU) joint assistance project “Capacity building for CO₂ mitigation from international aviation”, aims at providing assistance to a selected group of 14 States in Africa and the Caribbean to support the development and implementation of their States’ action plans on CO₂ emissions reduction from international aviation; to establish aviation environmental systems at the State level; and to identify, evaluate and implement mitigation measures in selected States.

The project activities were initiated with kick-off seminars in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and Yaoundé, Cameroon, for selected Caribbean and African States, respectively. More than 30 national focal points, designated by the selected States, participated in these seminars, which aimed to strengthen the national capacities of the beneficiary States for the preparation of States’ action plans in accordance with the Guidance on the Development of States’ Action Plans on CO₂ Emissions Reduction Activities (Doc 9988).

The establishment of National Action Plan Teams by the selected States in the project has changed the way the States work toward environmental objectives. This coordination mechanism has enabled the civil aviation authorities to bring to the table all the stakeholders including, inter alia, ministries of environment, ministries of transport, airports, airlines, air navigation services providers and fuel suppliers.

This consultation process has allowed for the collection of data, preparation of baseline scenarios, and discussions on potential mitigation measures available for the States to reduce CO₂ emissions from international aviation.

One important resource developed under the ICAO-EU Assistance Project is the Aviation Environmental System (AES), which facilitates the monitoring of CO₂ emissions and the establishment of national inventories in the aviation sector. The AES has been installed in 12 selected States on proprietary hardware that has been purchased with the project funds.

ICAO also organized two hands-on seminars focused on the AES: one in Trinidad and Tobago for the Caribbean States in October and one in Kenya for the African States in November. The selected States will be encouraged to use it for the automatic reporting of their emissions inventories to ICAO.