Strategic Objective — Environmental Protection — Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP)

Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP)

In preparation for the tenth meeting of the Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP/10) to be held in February 2016, the third CAEP Steering Group meeting of the CAEP/10 cycle (SG2015) was held at ICAO Headquarters in Montréal from 20-24 July. The purpose of this meeting was to review the progress made since the 2014 Steering Group meeting and to provide guidance for the completion of the CAEP/10 work programme.

The meeting was attended by about 150 participants from States and observer organizations around the world, and served as the final review of the work of over 600 international experts. Topics covered included a new CO₂ emissions Standard and Particulate Matter (PM) Standard, and the assessment of present and future trends across global climate, Local Air Quality (LAQ), and aircraft noise.

Environmental Analysis and Trends

Progress has been made to update a set of noise, LAQ, and global climate trends, which are scheduled to be delivered to the CAEP/10 meeting in February 2016 for adoption. Significant effort has been placed on developing projections and a suitable life cycle assessment methodology to estimate the potential future contributions of alternative fuels, notably to net CO₂ emissions from international aviation on the global climate trends, in addition to the contribution of technological and operational measures for CO₂ emissions reductions.

These trends will be recommended as the basis for decision-making during the upcoming 39th Session of the ICAO Assembly.

ICAO Aeroplane CO₂ Emissions Standard

The Committee delivered the new ICAO Aeroplane CO₂ Emissions Standard, for agreement at the CAEP/10 meeting.

The final decision on the CO₂ Standard is underpinned by significant modelling and assessment activities to ensure that information is available for the final new Standard to be environmentally beneficial and cost effective.

A crucial part of this work has been defining the applicability of the Standard, including investigations regarding possibly making the CO₂ Standard applicable to both new and in-production aeroplane types.

ICAO Aircraft Engine Particulate Matter (PM) Standard

Work was conducted by CAEP to ensure the validity of the technical basis underpinning the ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) associated with reducing the impact of civil aviation on LAQ. This work has included the development of a new non-volatile Particulate Matter (nvPM) Standard.

The initial nvPM Standard, which is on schedule for agreement at the CAEP/10 meeting, will utilize the current ICAO Standard for Smoke, and will include an nvPM certification requirement that will set the stage for a more stringent nvPM Standard as early as the CAEP/11 meeting in 2019.

The aim of the proposed CAEP/10 nvPM Standard is to allow for future environmental impact assessments and potential future nvPM Standards by enabling the reporting of data on health and climate-relevant nvPM emissions.

Helicopter, Supersonic Aircraft and RPAS Noise Impacts

CAEP has been reviewing the status of helicopter noise technology and will evaluate current helicopter noise certification schemes to ensure that they are up to date.

The environmental acceptability of the impacts of supersonic operations constitutes the main challenge. CAEP has been progressing toward a supersonic aeroplane Standard, which is crucial to supersonic operations in future.

CAEP also continued to investigate the current state of noise certification for remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS) and will continue monitoring certification issues in this fast-growing sector.

Global Market-based Measure (GMBM) Scheme for International Aviation

Development of a Global Market-based Measure (GMBM) scheme is one of the most challenging technical tasks within CAEP’s scope of work.

CAEP responded to requests from the Council and its Environment Advisory Group (EAG) in support of their deliberations and undertook technical analyses on the assessment of environmental benefits and the costs of different approaches for the GMBM scheme being considered.

As requested by the Council, CAEP continued to develop the technical elements to support the development of a GMBM. A set of recommendations will be delivered for agreement at the CAEP/10 meeting on the eligibility of emission units which could be used in a GMBM scheme. In addition, recommendations were made on how emissions from international aviation would be Monitored, Reported and Verified (MRV), and on registries for the GMBM scheme.

Sustainable Alternative Fuels

In addition to the work on quantifying the potential future contribution of sustainable alternative fuels to reducing the life cycle emissions from international aviation, CAEP also worked on a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology for use in the MRV system of a GMBM scheme.

The Secretariat continued to support States and stakeholders in their efforts to develop and deploy alternative fuels, in particular through information-sharing tools. This includes regular updates to the Global Framework for Aviation Alternative Fuels (GFAAF), the web platform for information collection and dissemination through which a unique database on developments in aviation alternative fuels is made available to the aviation community.