Strategic Objective — Environmental Protection — Cooperation with Other United Nations Bodies

Cooperation with Other United Nations Bodies

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Process and Conference of Parties (COP21)

ICAO participated in the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in conjunction with the 11th Session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP11). The Paris conference also included the 43rd Session of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA43), and the second Session of the Ad-hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP2).

ICAO submitted a report and provided a statement to SBSTA, outlining the achievements on actions requested by the 38th Session of the Assembly.

ICAO held a side event to share information on its achievements, with a focus on ICAO’s capacity-building and assistance strategy for the development and implementation of States’ action plans to reduce international aviation CO₂ emissions.

The UNFCCC COP21 meeting concluded with the adoption of the Paris Agreement and associated decision text, which did not include reference to international aviation. ICAO Member States continue to work on the basis of ICAO agreed instruments, in particular ICAO Assembly Resolution A38-18 (“Consolidated statement of continuing ICAO policies and practices related to environmental protection — Climate change”).

The fact that international aviation was not covered under the Paris Agreement can be considered to be a vote of confidence in the progress that ICAO and its Member States have achieved thus far, and the Paris Agreement provides the aviation community with further momentum towards success at the 39th Session of the Assembly.

The Conference decided to invite ICAO to continue to report its progress of work to future sessions of the UNFCCC SBSTA.

UNFCCC Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Methodologies for Aviation

As part of its cooperation with the UNFCCC Secretariat, the ICAO Secretariat has been developing the methodologies under the UNFCCC Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) that would be applicable to aviation projects.

A concept note for the development of aviation methodologies was developed and presented to the CDM Executive Board in February. Since then, two methodologies: “Solar power for domestic aircraft at-gate operations” and “Electric taxiing systems for airplanes” were developed, and the CDM Executive Board in November approved the e-taxiing methodology.

The question raised by the Board on the solar at-gate methodology will be addressed for further consideration.

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

ICAO continued to work with UNEP and other UN agencies in support of generating their emissions inventories from air travel and with the integration of the ICAO Carbon Emissions Calculator into their travel systems and into a GHG reporting software common to all UN organizations.

ICAO also worked in cooperation with UNEP, the World Bank and UNICEF to peer-review the carbon emissions inventory of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

ICAO participated in the United Nations Environmental Management Group (EMG) meetings, chaired by UNEP, where topics discussed included: a UN system-wide strategy on the environment; the effectiveness of the EMG; and the role of the EMG in coordinating UN system-wide support for implementing the Sustainable Development Goals.