Last week, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) concluded its final round of ‘Global Aviation Dialogues’ (GLADs) across the world – outlining to both member states and industry, the current progress on negotiations for a Global Market Based Measure (GMBM) for international aviation.
The GLADs have taken place in Egypt, Senegal, Indonesia, the Netherlands and Mexico over the last few weeks, ending last Friday 8th April. The purpose of the GLADs was for ICAO to provide information and outreach to all member states (but particularly to those who are not part of the ICAO Council high level discussions) in order to foster a better understanding of the latest draft ICAO assembly resolution, which outlines the proposed scheme.
The conclusion of the GLADs meetings provide another important milestone in ICAO’s attempt to develop a new GMBM – with the latest draft resolution attempting to ensure not only a robust environmental solution, but one which is politically acceptable to both developed and developing nations. Overall, the GMBM is aimed at ensuring Carbon Neutral Growth of international aviation CO2 emissions from 2020.
The draft resolution outlined by ICAO suggests that the scheme could be based on offset scheme, with a two stage phase-in (coming into force in 2021 and 2026) to ensure developing nations are accommodated, and last until 2035. In addition, the scheme could also be focused on operators which emit more than 10,000 tonnes of CO2 per year, include aircraft above 5,700kg maximum take-off weight, and exclude humanitarian, medical and fire fighting aircraft operations.
So far, negotiations have been progressing positively; with both the US and Chinese Presidents recently issuing a communique pledging to work together to achieve a successful outcome at the ICAO General Assembly in October 2016.
So what are the next steps?
Following March and April’s GLADs, the High Level Group (HLG), which is working on developing the detail behind a new GMBM, will analyse feedback they have received and seek to reach a consensus on a resolution at a special three-day high-level meeting held at ICAO in early May. This will provide the final formal opportunity for negotiations ahead of the General Assembly.
An agreement in October will be one of the most significant steps in the aviation community’s work to improve its environmental footprint. Industry is fully supportive of ICAO developing and agreeing a global market based measure for aviation. International aviation is a global sector with very specific operational, commercial, financial and regulatory requirements requiring specific expertise. ICAO is the only forum which brings industry and government together to reach the balance and consensus required.
Whilst further work is set to be undertaken before an agreement can be reached at the General Assembly, a successful outcome will be critical ingredient of the ‘basket of measures’ that are required to improve civil aviation’s environmental footprint – which also includes technology & sustainable alternative fuels, operational improvements, the agreed CO2 standard, and further infrastructure developments.
