ACOS - An Aviation Carbon Offset Scheme (ACOS)
Overview
Background & policy context:
Aviation contributes significantly to climate change. It gives rise to about 2% of global CO2 emissions, has other physical and chemical impacts on the atmosphere that contribute to global warming, and its emissions and the other related effects are forecasted to increase rapidly. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) recognises this fact and its 2013 Assembly has set two targets for the greenhouse gas emissions from aviation:
- A 2% global average annual fuel efficiency improvement between 2010 and 2020 (and an aspirational goal of a 2% average annual improvement up to 2050);
- Keeping the global net carbon emissions of international aviation from 2020 at the same level.
Long-term projections of aviation emissions demonstrate that in-sector reduction options and the 2% efficiency improvement will not be sufficient to keep emissions constant from 2020 onwards. The Assembly resolution acknowledges that emissions may increase due to the expected growth in international air traffic and decided to develop a global MBM scheme for international aviation.
Objectives:
The aim was to provide a concept for the design of the Aviation Carbon Offset Scheme (ACOS) and to overcome the deadlock that has continued for many years between developed and developing countries, hindering an agreement on instruments addressing greenhouse gas emission of the aviation sectors.
Methodology:
The developed ACOS concept contains the following key design elements:
- Emission threshold
- Revenues
- Accountable entity
- Offset requirements
- Reflection of SCRC
- Differentiation criteria
- Offset quality
- Administration
- Monitoring
- Enforcement
Within the study, specific features for these design elements were developed.
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