What is CORSIA?
CORSIA is a global market-based measure designed to offset international aviation CO2 emissions from 2020 onward.
The program is part of a basket of policy measures taken by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and allows airline operators and other market participants to offset carbon dioxide emissions by retiring carbon credits.
CORSIA has the potential to serve as a blueprint for sector-based carbon markets to deploy carbon pricing globally.
CORSIA at its core
A podcast series brought to you by ICE and hosted by Gordon Bennett, Global Head of Environmental Markets at ICE, with a great lineup of guests, to take off into CORSIA - the first global sector-based carbon pricing program.
How CORSIA works
ICAO countries with airplane operators conducting international flights need to ensure that their operators comply with the CORSIA offsetting requirements every three years and are required to monitor, report and verify (MRV) CO2 emissions from these flights every year from 2019, independently of their participation in CORSIA. Only international flights from participating countries are subject to offsetting requirement.
The baseline for the Pilot Phase was 2019 emission level, while for Phase 1 it’s 85% of 2019's emission levels.
Offsetting of CO2 emissions will be achieved through the acquisition and cancellation of CORSIA Eligible Emission Units coming from ICAO approved Standard and Methodologies CORSIA Phase 1 is the first phase aligned with the Paris Agreement. This means that CORSIA Phase 1 eligible units come with a letter of authorization of the host country, and the double claiming compensation mechanism
Pilot Phase (2021 - 2023)
- Voluntary participation
- 88 countries volunteered in 2021
- Eligible emission units from 11 approved registries (with exclusions)
- Crediting period starting in 2016
- Vintages between 2016 and 2020 except for ACR and ART; 2016 – 2023
Phase One (2024 - 2026)
- Voluntary participation: Once opted in, airlines operators of participating countries must comply
- 126 countries volunteered as of 1 of Jan ’24
- Eligible Emissions Units from 2 approved standards: ACR and ART (with exclusion). 8 registries conditionally approved
- Crediting period starting 2016 and vintages between 2021 - 2026
- First phase aligned with Paris Agreement: LOA and double claiming mechanism needed.
Phase Two - Compliance Period (2027 - 2035)
- All countries with individual share of international aviation activity in year 2018 above 0.5% of total activity or whose cumulative share reaches 90% of total activity
- Least developed, small island developing and landlocked developing countries are exempt unless they volunteer to participate
- Split period:
- 2027 – 2029
- 2030 – 2032
- 2035 - 2037
Starting from 2021, the growth factor is the % increase in number of emissions from baseline and is calculated by ICAO.
- Calculation - Host country calculates the offsetting requirements attributed to an airplane operator.
- Reporting - The airplane operator reports the use of CORSIA Eligible Fuels (CEF) for a 3-year compliance period.
- Confirmation - The host country accounts for the benefits from the use of CEF and informs the operator of its final CO2 offsetting requirements for a 3-year compliance period.
- Purchasing - The airplane operator purchases and cancels eligible emissions units equivalent to its final CO2 offsetting requirements for the compliance period.
- Verification - The airplane operator provides an emissions report to the host country; the country performs an order of magnitude check of the report, and aggregates the data, and uses the CORSIA Central Registry (CCR) to submit to ICAO.