The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has warmly welcomed the decision, on Friday, of the forty-first Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to adopt the target of net-zero carbon emissions for civil aviation by 2050 as a ‘long-term aspirational goal’ (LTAG). IATA is the global representative body for the airline industry while ICAO is an intergovernmental entity and a specialist agency of the United Nations. IATA noted that the ICAO Assembly decision aligned that body with both the aims of the Paris Climate Agreement and the decision taken by the world’s airlines at the seventy-seventh Annual General Meeting of IATA a year ago.

“The significance of the LTAG agreement cannot be underestimated,” asserted IATA director-general Willie Walsh. “The aviation industry’s commitment to achieve net-zero CO₂ emissions by 2050 requires supportive government policies. Now that governments and industry are both focused on net-zero by 2050, we expect much stronger policy initiatives in key areas of decarbonisation such as incentivising the production capacity of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF). And the global determination to decarbonise aviation that underpins this agreement must follow the delegates home and lead to practical policy actions enabling all States to support the industry in the rapid progress that it is determined to make.”

IATA noted that the adoption of the LTAG was the result of “intense” talks that had to bridge the differing levels of development of the world’s countries, but that there was “overwhelming support” for it at the ICAO Assembly. It also noted that the airlines expected that the single biggest factor in decarbonising aviation would be the adoption of SAF. But SAF was far more expensive that conventional jet fuel.

“With LTAG in mind, State efforts should now be focused on ways to incentivise an increase in SAF production capacity and thereby reduce its cost,” he stressed. “The tremendous progress made in many economies on the transition of electricity production to green sources such as solar power and wind is a shining example of what can be achieved with the right government policies, particularly production incentives.”

IATA also pointed out that the ICAO Assembly had strengthened its commitment to the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). The States had agreed to stabilise aviation emissions at 85% of their 2019 level, with effect from 2024.

“The lower baseline will place a significantly greater cost burden on airlines,” pointed out Walsh. “So, it is more critical than ever that governments do not chip away at the cement which bonds CORSIA as the only economic measure to manage the carbon footprint of international aviation. States must now honour, support and defend CORSIA against any proliferation of economic measures. These will only undermine CORSIA and the collective effort to decarbonise aviation.”