Capacity building for CO2 mitigation from international aviation in Africa and the Caribbean

The 1st regional activity on Capacity building for CO2 mitigation from international aviation - CORSIA Africa and the Caribbean – has been delivered online on the 19th and 20th July 2021 focusing on the beneficiaries of the Caribbean region.

 A second regional Activity for the Sub-Saharan beneficiaries’ countries will be delivered in September.

 With these activities the inception phase of the EU funded project for the CORSIA implementation that had a stand by period due to the pandemic, is concluded and the workplan for the effective implementation of the project is starting in full speed.

The Secretary General of LACAC, the office manager of CASSOS, the Director General of the ECCAA and representatives of Caribbean countries participated in the event. The CAAs participation from the region has been high with almost all the beneficiary countries (beside Haiti, Bahamas and Cuba) being present.

The presence of the EU Delegation to Trinidad and Tobago, Mr Ze ALVES-PEREIRA, focal point for the Green Deal programmes in the region completed the 360 degrees approach that the project is trying to adopt.

The representative of the European Commission - Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA), Mr Vincent Picard, welcomed all participants and expressed his appreciation for the large participation that shows the great commitment, interest and willingness of working together on the reduction of CO2 emissions from civil aviation. 

The representative of the Directorate Mobility and Transport (DG MOVE), Mr Jorge Pinto, made a presentation on sustainable aviation in Europe, giving a clear picture of the actions and strategies that the European Union is putting in place to expedite the implementation of the Paris Agreement:

• The European Green Deal calls for a 90% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from transport by 2050. (It is an ambitious package of measures ranging from ambitiously cutting greenhouse gas emissions, to investing in cutting-edge research and innovation, to preserving Europe’s natural environment). https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_21_3541

• The European Commission announced a Strategy for Sustainable and Smart Mobility with 10 flagships (Key EU legislation and policies).

• A ‘Fit for 55’ package will update the EU’s 2030 climate, energy, transport and tax laws to reflect the 55% net emissions reduction target for 2030.

In his speech, the EASA Strategy and Management Director Luc Tytgat highlighted the importance to have a global or regional approach rather than a national approach to combat the climate change and to reduce the emissions. He recalled that for this reason, the EU and ICAO decided to organise some capacity building events for a harmonised response to the expectation and this is the context for this first workshop. Mr Tygat then outlined the main strategies that EASA is implementing at European level: first of all, on the use of sustainable aviation fuel and in the field of research into new technologies that are supposed to reduce CO2 emissions.

Ms Carla Iorio, manager of the International Cooperation America and Africa Section at EASA, illustrated the EU initiatives in environmental protection that are currently conducted with and in third countries, focusing on the international cooperation projects with an environmental component and on the main areas of actions of such projects. 

LACAC Secretary Mr Jamie Binder opened his speech with two very important crosscutting concepts: the environmental problem is regaining urgency and represents and requires a cultural change. It is not an issue for the 'few', but one that must involve everyone. He reminded that aviation is a pioneer in taking actions to combat the climate change: the basket of measures that ICAO developed, one of whom is CORSIA, to mitigate CO2 emissions is one of the most important.

Mr Binder then recognises the role of Europe as one of the main promoters with the commitment of the environment in the aviation sector that, throught the “European Green Deal” is showing the path toward a resilient aviation, an aviation that respects the environment. There will be soon a return to normal but with a new and different awareness: states that have joined CORSIA can benefit from the advantage of consolidating their destinations as those that are part of the environmental protection.

 He welcomes the sharing of expertise between the EU and the Caribbean through the CORSIA project and recommend act in continuity with what ICAO has already done, not to duplicate efforts and be redundant.

 Ms Eleonora Italia, newly appointed EU CORSIA Africa and Caribbean project manager presented the details of the project and Mr Carlos Tortosa project manager of the EU LAC APP project complemented with the environmental stream of actions that are included in the other EU Aviation support project in the Latin America region.

On the second day, leaded by the EASA Environmental expert Jonas Laukia, the discussion took a more technical and detailed approach with a focus on CORSIA implementation, on the Monitoring, reporting, evaluation (MRV) and State’s order of magnitude check of the Emission Reports. The audience was active and interested and the interaction with partner states very fruitful.

The Director General of the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority (ECCAA), Mr Anthony Witthier, expressed the interest of the Eastern Caribbean countries (Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines) in the environmental problem and the need to address it.

Mr Witthier underlined the common effort that the Eastern Caribbean countries are making, creating synergies and forms of cooperation for the implementation of emission reduction measures and expressed his appreciation for the implementation of the EU project on which great expectations are placed.

Intervention by, the Environmental policy officer of CASSOS Ms Cleonie Williams completed the framework in the Caribbean Region stating that CASSOS is ready to play an active role by facilitating dialogue and actions implementation to reach the project goals. Ms Williams also gave an overview of the CORSIA scheme implementation across the CASSOS states: the majority of them are participating in the voluntary phase showing the commitment and interest in the environmental protection.

To confirm sinergies across the activities on CORSIA in the different regions, the project manager of the EU SEA (South East Asia) CCCA CORSIA talked about the commonalities between the two projects and shared the experience gained so far, mainly highlighting the importance for the aviation authorities to ensure a continuous communication with the operators.

The atmosphere has been very cooperative and friendly and made this event a milestone for the successful networking in the region.

 

…And now the project is full speed taking off . See you in September!

Stay safe, stay green