The 36-State ICAO Council has adopted a new aircraft CO₂ emissions standard which will reduce the impact of aviation greenhouse gas emissions on the global climate.

 

Contained in a new Volume III to Annex 16 of the Chicago Convention (Environmental Protection), the aircraft CO₂ emissions measure represents the world’s first global design certification standard governing CO₂ emissions for any industry sector.

 

The Standard will apply to new aircraft type designs from 2020, and to aircraft type designs already in-production as of 2023. Those in-production aircraft which by 2028 do not meet the standard will no longer be able to be produced unless their designs are sufficiently modified.

 

“International civil aviation has once again taken pioneering action to address the impact of aviation CO₂ emissions on the global climate,” stressed ICAO Council President Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu,  “making air transport the first industry sector globally to adopt a CO₂ emissions design certification standard. Alongside our 39^th Assembly’s landmark agreement last October on the new Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), this latest development confirms our sector’s leadership and concrete actions toward ensuring a sustainable end environmentally responsible future for global civil aviation,” President Aliu added.

 

“This historic accomplishment places aviation in an even better position as we look forward to a greener era of air transport development,” commented ICAO Secretary General Fang Liu. “The dedicated work of the ICAO Secretariat, the hundreds of experts who compose ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP), and the State representatives on our Air Navigation Commission has been highly appreciated.”

 

 

Background Details: new CO₂ Standard for Aircraft

Effective date: July 2017

Applicability date: 1 January 2018

 

Embedded applicability date(s):

 

Subsonic jet aeroplanes, including their derived versions, of greater than 5 700 kg maximum take-off mass for which the application for a type certificate was submitted on or after 1 January 2020, except for those aeroplanes of less than or equal to 60 000 kg maximum take-off mass with a maximum passenger seating capacity of 19 seats or less;

 

Subsonic jet aeroplanes, including their derived versions, of greater than 5 700 kg and less than or equal to 60 000 kg maximum take-off mass with a maximum passenger seating capacity of 19 seats or less, for which the application for a type certificate was submitted on or after 1 January 2023;

 

All propeller-driven aeroplanes, including their derived versions, of greater than 8 618 kg maximum take-off mass, for which the application for a type certificate was submitted on or after 1 January 2020;

 

Derived versions of non-CO₂-certified subsonic jet aeroplanes of greater than 5 700 kg maximum certificated take-off mass for which the application for certification of the change in type design was submitted on or after 1 January 2023;

 

Derived versions of non-CO₂ certified propeller-driven aeroplanes of greater than 8 618 kg maximum certificated take-off mass for which the application for certification of the change in type design was submitted on or after 1 January 2023;

 

Individual non-CO₂-certified subsonic jet aeroplanes of greater than 5 700 kg maximum certificated take-off mass for which a certificate of airworthiness was first issued on or after 1 January 2028; and

 

Individual non-CO₂-certified propeller-driven aeroplanes of greater than 8 618 kg maximum certificated take-off mass for which a certificate of airworthiness was first issued on or after 1 January 2028.