Decision 2023/136 - Amendment of Directive 2003/87/EC as regards the notification of offsetting in respect of a global market-based measure for aircraft operators based in the Union - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 19/1

The Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has been in operation since 2019 as regards the monitoring, reporting and verification of emissions, and is intended to be a globally applied market-based measure aiming to offset international aviation carbon dioxide emissions from 1 January 2021 above a fixed emissions level with certain offset credits.

The Paris Agreement, adopted in December 2015 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (4), entered into force in November 2016. Its Parties have agreed to hold the increase in the global average temperature well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1,5 °C above pre-industrial levels. That commitment has been reinforced with the adoption of the Glasgow Climate Pact in November 2021, in which the Conference of the Parties recognised that the impacts of climate change would be much lower at a temperature increase of 1,5 °C, compared with 2 °C, and resolved to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1,5 °C.

Subject to the differences between Union legislation and the provisions in the First Edition of Annex 16, Volume IV, to the Convention on International Civil Aviation – Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, establishing the International Standards and Recommended Practices on Environmental Protection for CORSIA (CORSIA SARPs), and which were notified to ICAO following the adoption of Council Decision (EU) 2018/2027 (5), and subject to the manner in which the European Parliament and the Council amend Union legislation, the Union intends to implement CORSIA through Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (6).

Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1603 (7) was adopted in order to appropriately implement the rules of CORSIA for monitoring, reporting and verification of aviation emissions. The offsetting within the meaning of the CORSIA SARPs is calculated on the basis of CO2 emissions verified in accordance with that Delegated Regulation.

Due to a large decrease in aviation emissions in 2020 as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, the ICAO Council decided in its 220th session in June 2020 that 2019 emissions should be used as baseline for calculating the offsetting to be carried out by aircraft operators for the years 2021 to 2023. That decision was endorsed by the ICAO 41st Assembly in October 2022.

Aviation emissions did not exceed their collective 2019 levels in 2021. On 31 October 2022, ICAO determined that the Sector Growth Factor (SGF) for 2021 emissions equals zero. The SGF is a parameter of the CORSIA methodology used to calculate operators’ annual offsetting requirements. Therefore, aircraft operators’ additional offsetting is to be zero for the year...