ICAO touts meeting’s progress on sustainable aviation, US objects to recommendation that penalizes American farmers

Recommendations made by the International Civil Aviation Organization’s 13th Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection meeting at ICAO headquarters Feb. 17-28 mark a clear sign of progress towards sustainable aviation, ICAO announced March 3.  

A total of 31 recommendations were made by the committee, which established a methodology on monitoring and reporting CO2-emissions reductions against the ICAO long-term global aspirational goal (LTAG), proposed more stringent aircraft-noise and CO2-emissions standards, and made progress on non-CO2 emissions, climate adaptation, airports, operations, fuels and CORSIA.

Tammy Bruce, spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, said the U.S. strongly objected to one recommendation on multicropping, the practice of growing two or more crops on the same land, for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), which the U.S. said would unfairly penalize American farmers and significantly benefit Brazil over the rest of the world.  

“The U.S. government believes this proposal is premature and lacks sufficient technical or scientific justification,” Bruce said. “Despite these issues, CAEP adopted the recommendation, harming U.S. farmers and the aviation industry, while increasing incentives for deforestation of threatened tropical forests.”

Bruce added that the U.S. remains committed to a constructive dialogue at ICAO and the CAEP and reiterates a willingness to continue to work with member states, U.S. industry, and other observers on recommendations that reflect U.S. interests that maximize contributions to ICAO.

ICAO, on the other hand, said together these advancements will lay the technical foundation needed to continue to transform the sector’s environmental commitments into concrete actions.

The committee’s adoption of the first-ever global system to track progress towards the LTAG of net-zero carbon emissions marked a pivotal development, the organization stated.

With the creation of a robust monitoring and reporting methodology, ICAO said this new framework provides a standardized global approach to measure aviation’s progress on decarbonization, enabling transparent and informed decision-making across the sector.

“This monitoring framework transforms our net-zero commitment from aspiration to actionable reality,” said Salvatore Sciacchitano, ICAO council president. “We now have the tools to measure progress and adjust our course as needed.”

ICAO said the committee’s work SAF will accelerate the certification of new sustainable fuel pathways, which ICAO said are critical for achieving the sector’s vision of 5 percent CO2-emissions reduction through cleaner energies by 2030, as agreed at the Third Conference on Aviation and Alternative Fuels (CAAF/3) in 2023.

The establishment of more stringent noise and CO2 standards represents the first time both standards have been made more stringent simultaneously for aviation, ICAO noted.

The intent, the organization stated, is to shape the next generation of aircraft designs by moving manufacturers toward solutions that address these closely related environmental impacts.

The outcomes of CAEP/13 will be considered by the ICAO council and will inform crucial global policy decisions at the 42nd Session of the ICAO Assembly in October, “strengthening the foundation for aviation’s sustainable transformation for decades to come,” ICAO said.