#Aviation Commission welcomes landmark deal on CO2 standard for aircraft emissions

The Commission welcomes the agreement reached yesterday within the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on the first ever-global standard to cap CO2 emissions from aircraft. The agreement must now be endorsed by the ICAO General Assembly to be held this autumn.

Meeting in Montreal, the ICAO's Committee on Aviation and Environmental Protection (CAEP) agreed on a CO2 standard, which will guide the certification of aircraft towards greater fuel-efficiency. The stringency and the applicability dates, which the CO2 standard imposes, will depend on the weight of the aircraft and whether it concerns a 'new type' aircraft or an 'in-production' aircraft. For large new aircraft types, a very ambitious standard was agreed, to incentivise ever-greater fuel efficiency performance of future aircraft fleets. For such aircraft types, the standard will apply as of 2020. By 2028, existing aircraft types will also have to apply the new standard. Over the period until 2040, the CO2 standard could help save up to 650 million tonnes of CO2.

EU Commissioner for Transport Violeta Bulc said, "This agreement is an important step to curb aviation emissions. An ambitious climate policy is an integral part of the Commission’s plan to create an Energy Union, and a priority of the new Aviation Strategy. The EU played a central role in brokering this deal, as it did at the COP21 in Paris. I hope this will create further momentum for the creation of a Global Market-Based Measure to offset CO2 emissions from international aviation, which we hope to achieve this autumn at the ICAO General Assembly."

This agreement concludes six years of international negotiations. It will be brought before the 39th ICAO Assembly in September for political endorsement, and is expected to be formally adopted by the ICAO Council in early 2017.

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