LONDON, 16 March - The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) welcomes the decision by the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to approve the first six programmes that will provide the Eligible Emissions Units for compliance use in its Carbon Offset Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).

The six programmes are:
• American Carbon Registry (ACR)

• China GHG Voluntary Emission Reduction Program
• UNFCCC Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
• Climate Action Reserve (CAR)
• The Gold Standard
• Verified Carbon Standard Program (VCS).

“We’re delighted that ICAO has now created the clarity that airlines need in order to source emission reduction units for compliance.  Investors can ramp up to begin supplying these reductions to the new market mechanism,” said Dirk Forrister, IETA chief executive officer.

“ICAO’s focus on high quality carbon reductions will act as a strong incentive to operators of other such programmes to set the bar high when it comes to compliance instruments.”

The ICAO Council also gave conditional approval to two further offset standards, subject to certain amendments to their rules.

For the first phase (also known as the pilot phase) of the CORSIA mechanism, which lasts from 2021 to 2023, only emission reductions issued to projects that started their first crediting period from 1 January 2016 and emissions reductions that occurred through 31 December 2020 will be eligible for use.

“The Council’s adherence to robust emissions unit criteria combined with the imposed restriction on historical emissions reductions brings the high environmental integrity we have been calling for,” said Eva Weightman, IETA’s Director for Aviation.

The full text of the Technical Advisory Body’s recommendations on CORSIA eligible emissions units that was approved by the Council can be found here.