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