Benin becomes newest participant in CORSIA emissions offsetting programme

The West African State of Benin has become the newest country to confirm its voluntary participation in the ICAO Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). This brings the total number of countries to begin offsetting their international flight emissions to 83 when the CORSIA voluntary pilot phase kicks off in 2021. Together they account for 76.64% of current international scheduled flights.

Benin’s official participation under CORSIA was confirmed in a letter conveyed last Friday from the Director General of its National Civil Aviation Authority, Mr. Karl Legba, to ICAO Secretary General Dr. Fang Liu. The positive CORSIA announcement out of Benin comes as COVID-19 restrictions on global mobility continue to reduce air traffic demand.

ICAO’s 36-State Governing Council has already included an agenda item on this subject for its upcoming 220th session, ensuring discussions will take place on possible solutions to assure that the overall integrity and objectives of the CORSIA programme aren’t diminished due to COVID-19 traffic impacts.

As part of its emergency response measures during the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, ICAO has been taking various steps to ensure that States continue to be supported in the implementation of the CORSIA offsetting scheme, including through more flexible capacity-building approaches, online training sessions of the CORSIA Central Registry (CCR) in April 2020, and the launching of a series of online CORSIA verification courses from May 2020.


Updated information on the States that intend to voluntarily participate in CORSIA from its outset

The 40th Session of the ICAO Assembly requested the ICAO Secretariat to publish updated information on the States that volunteer to participate in CORSIA’s pilot phase (2021-2023) and the first phase (2024-2026). As at 3​ April​ 2020, these are the 83 States with international aviation activity, that intend to voluntarily participate in CORSIA from its outset:

1             Albania

2             Armenia

3             Australia

4             Austria

5             Azerbaijan

6             Belgium

7             Benin

8             Bosnia and Herzegovina

9             Botswana

10           Bulgaria

11           Burkina Faso

12           Cameroon

13           Canada

14           Costa Rica

15           Cote d’Ivoire

16           Croatia

17           Cyprus

18           Czech Republic

19           Democratic Republic of the Congo

20           Denmark

21           Dominican Republic

​​22           El Salvador

23           Equatorial Guinea

24           Estonia

25           Finland

26           France

27           Gabon

28           Georgia

29           Germany

30           Ghana

31           Greece

32           Guatemala

33           Guyana

​​34           Hungary

35           Iceland

36           Indonesia

37           Ireland

38           Israel

39           Italy

40           Jamaica

41           Japan

42           Kenya

43           Latvia

44           Lithuania

45           Luxembourg

46           Malaysia

47           Malta

48           Marshall Islands

49           Mexico

50           Monaco

51           Montenegro

52           Namibia

53           Netherlands

54           New Zealand

55           Nigeria

56           North Macedonia

57           Norway

58           Papua New Guinea

59           Philippines

60           Poland

61           Portugal

62           Qatar

63           Republic of Korea

64           Republic of Moldova

65           Romania

66           San Marino

67           Saudi Arabia

68           Serbia

69           Singapore

70           Slovakia

71           Slovenia

72           Spain

73           Sweden

74           Switzerland

75           Thailand

76           Turkey

77           Uganda

78           Ukraine

79           United Arab Emirates

80           United Kingdom

81           United Republic of Tanzania

82           United States

83           Zambia


 

ACT CORSIACorsiaEnvironment