UK opens consultation on implementing CORSIA and policy options for interaction with UK ETS

As the UK prepares to adopt ICAO’s CORSIA regulations into domestic law, the Department for Transport (DfT) has opened a consultation on its proposed approach for implementing and administering the monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of aviation CO2 emissions from this year. The consultation also considers policy options for interaction between CORSIA and with the UK leaving the EU ETS post-Brexit, a new UK Emissions Trading Scheme that also starts in 2021. The government’s preferred option is a ‘supply-adjusted’ hybrid scheme in which aeroplane operators would be entitled to claim a reduction in their UK ETS obligations equivalent to their CORSIA CO2 offsetting obligations on flights from the UK to EEA States covered by the EU ETS. In this option, for every tonne of CO2 that is removed from the UK ETS obligations of an operator due to CORSIA, a tonne of CO2 in UK ETS allowances would also be retired from the system. This would be more environmentally stringent than a simple hybrid approach and would be fully compliant with the CORSIA regulations, believes the DfT. The six-week consultation runs until February 28.

As a contracting state of ICAO, the DfT says the UK is obliged to adopt into domestic law the relevant Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) relating to ICAO’s CORSIA carbon offsetting scheme for international aviation. The consultation considers CORSIA implementation in terms of MRV and offsetting by operators of their CO2 emissions. A second consultation is planned for this summer on detailed proposals for implementing CORSIA offsetting in the UK. [...]

GreenAir Online

> Read the article

> Read about UK ETS Program