Benin joins ICAO’s carbon emissions offsetting scheme

The West African State of Benin has become the newest country to confirm that it will voluntarily participate in the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). 

With the addition of Benin, the total number of countries to begin offsetting their international flight emissions when the CORSIA voluntary pilot phase begins in 2021 is now 83. Together, they account for 76.64 per cent of current international scheduled flights. 

Benin’s official participation under the CORSIA scheme was confirmed in a letter from the Director General of its National Civil Aviation Authority, Karl Legba, to ICAO’s Secretary General, Dr. Fang Liu. 

Benin’s positive CORSIA announcement comes as COVID-19 restrictions on global mobility continue to reduce air traffic demand. 

While the COVID-19 impact on aviation traffic has been substantial, it’s still not clear what the final results will be on 2020 air traffic. ICAO is closely following the COVID-19 impacts currently being seen, and the CORSIA design elements already include the possibility for reviews, safeguards and, if deemed necessary, adjustments to the scheme. 

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 as a result of the 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.