The ICAO Council has officially adopted a new aircraft CO2 emissions standard designed to reduce the impact of aviation greenhouse gas emissions on the climate. ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) had unanimously recommended the standard in February 2016.
The adoption of the new standard follows the rollout of ICAO’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) in October 2016.
ICAO hailed the emissions standard — contained in a new Volume III added to Annex 16 of the Chicago Convention (Environmental Protection) — as 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.