German Emissions Trading Authority

Emissions trading in aviation: CORSIA - Short overview and responsibilities (04/2018)

Dear Sir or Madam,

In October 2016, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) adopted a global, market-based climate change mitigation measure to limit carbon dioxide emissions from international aviation. The Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) provides for compensation of carbon dioxide emissions through project credits ('offsets') and emission allowances from emissions trading schemes ('allowances') in order to achieve a carbon dioxide-neutral growth of international air traffic from 2020.

We would like to brief you about CORSIA and its responsibilities that differ significantly from those in the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS):

Unlike EU ETS, CORSIA does not assign aircraft operators to their national competent authority on the basis of the operating licenses issued or the highest estimates of allocated aviation emissions. Instead the deciding factors are the ICAO Designator, the Air Operator Certificate (AOC) or the place of legal registration. In the future, DEHSt will be responsible for the implementation of CORSIA in Germany and thus exclusively for German aircraft operators. Accordingly, in future we will only send information on CORSIA to these German aircraft operators. If you are not a German aircraft operator, please contact your national civil aviation authority or other competent national authority.

The Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs), being the key regulation by ICAO, sets out administrative requirements, monitoring, reporting and verification rules (MRV rules) and rules for calculating the volume of obligatory compensation, amongst other things. They are expected to be adopted by the ICAO Council in June 2018 and to enter into force on 01/01/2019.

CORSIA's scope includes aircraft operators who annually emit more than 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from international flights and aircrafts with a maximum take-off mass of more than 5,700 kg.

It is planned to introduce CORSIA in several phases: a two-year period from 2019 to 2020 for the determination of baseline emissions and two three-year phases (2021 to 2026) where it is foreseen that states can voluntarily decide on their participation, before binding criteria apply to mandatory participation. Currently, 73 states have already agreed to a voluntary participation between 2021 and 2026. These states represent 87.7 percent of global aviation performance (as of 11.01.2018). This includes all European states and thus also Germany.

However, aircraft operators from all ICAO member states are already obliged to monitor their carbon dioxide emissions from 01/01/2019. For this purpose, a corresponding monitoring plan must be sent to the competent national authority by 28/02/2019.

More information about CORSIA can be found on the ICAO websites.

The exact future interaction between CORSIA and the EU ETS is currently being developed. Regulation (EU) 2017/2392 empowers the European Commission to lay down provisions for adequate emissions monitoring, reporting and verification for the implementation of CORSIA on all routes covered. This is known as a delegated act and is expected in the autumn of 2018.

We will keep the affected German aircraft operators informed about the latest developments by further mailings and information on our website and update them after the meeting of the ICAO Council at the latest in June 2018.

Further information

Please address your enquiries about emissions trading, preferably by e-mail, to emissionstrading@dehst.de. For any further questions you may also call our service hotline at +49-30-8903 5050, Mondays to Thursdays from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. and Fridays from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Additionally please find all previous DEHSt mailings on our internet www.dehst.de/English-Mailings.

Yours faithfully,
For the German Environment Agency

Dr. Jürgen Landgrebe
Deputy Head of the German Emissions Trading Authority at the German Environment Agency

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