The aviation industry needs to achieve environmental sustainability if it is to grow – in particular to address the sector’s growing share of CO2 emissions and mitigate the local impact of aircraft noise nuisance and detrimental effect on air quality.
ICAO’s new Environmental Report consolidates the progress that the international aviation community has made in environmental protection over the past three years – “an unprecedented effort driven by key decisions from ICAO Member States, technological developments and societal expectations”, Jane Hupe, Deputy Director of Environment at ICAO, emphasises.
The centrepiece of efforts is the 2016 adoption of CORSIA, the carbon offsetting and reduced scheme for international aviation which introduced the first-ever global market-based measure for aviation, leading Member States to commit to the aspirational goal of carbon neutral growth from 2020.
As the report underlines, CORSIA is just one of aviation’s basket of measures to address aviation sustainability, alongside improved technology, operations and infrastructure, as well as sustainable fuels.
The report provides a unique collection of articles and case studies designed to raise awareness of the work that the global aviation community has been doing in addressing the industry’s environmental impact.
At EUROCONTROL, we have been playing a very active role in mitigating aviation’s impact on the environment for many years now, putting our expertise, tools and data at the service of Member States, the European Union, ICAO and the wider aviation community.
Our environment related activities are wide-ranging and focus on:
- pushing for operational improvements across the European aviation network, both in the air and on the ground
- running noise and local air quality assessments for stakeholders
- carrying out climate-change risk assessments and developing adaptation plans
- actively participating in various ICAO and European environment-related fora, pushing the sustainability agenda forward.
For the report, our environmental experts have contributed to four articles alongside fellow experts from CANSO, the FAA, and skeyes, the Belgian ANSP. You can access the articles here.