Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, if any, to strengthen the International Civil Aviation Organisation agreement and the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation.

At the 41^st Assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organization in 2022, the UK played a leading role in securing agreement on a net zero by 2050 CO₂ emissions goal for international aviation. This agreement sends a clear signal of collective ambition and provides the platform for the development of further international measures and policies. UK experts are contributing to technical work on the monitoring of progress towards the goal, and the UK is currently engaged in negotiations to define the role that sustainable aviation fuels will play in meeting it.

The Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (or CORSIA), the first global market-based measure to address emissions from a single sector, was first agreed in 2016 and airlines have been monitoring their emissions under the scheme since 2019. A further agreement, which the UK was also influential in securing at last year’s Assembly, preserves the integrity of the scheme by setting its baseline at a level stringent enough to ensure airlines begin offsetting their emissions on flights between 125 countries from next year.

The UK is also working to strengthen compliance with CORSIA by supporting other states to implement it. As offsetting begins and experience grows, we will use the scheme’s Periodic Reviews to negotiate for it to be strengthened such that it fully supports the new net zero goal.