COVID-19 and environmental protection
While the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the global vulnerability of the aviation industry, it also represented an opportunity for ICAO Member States to create a legacy of transition to a green recovery for the sector. ICAO committed to support and assist States in this effort since the very outset of the pandemic.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, ICAO has taken various flexible means to provide capacity building for the CORSIA implementation. Since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, some States and aeroplane operators expressed concerns regarding their capacity to meet the CORSIA reporting deadlines. In this regard, the Council encouraged States to make all efforts to submit 2019 CO2 emissions reporting to ICAO by 31 August 2020, and invited those States that have difficulty in meeting the deadline to communicate with the Secretariat to discuss their situation and work together. In order to safeguard against inappropriate economic burden on aeroplane operators deriving from the pandemic impacts, the ICAO Council also decided that, during the pilot phase of CORSIA, actual 2019 emissions shall be used for 2020 emissions for the calculation of CORSIA baseline emissions and offsetting requirements.
