New partnership with UN aviation agency to provide insights on carbon offsetting market
Press Release

CORRECTION NOTE: AN EARLIER VERSION OF THIS RELEASE CONTAINED AN INCOMPLETE QUOTATION. AN UPDATED VERSION WAS RELEASED ON AUGUST 5, 2021 at 09:00 ET.

05 August 2021 | As more than 100 countries sign on for the pilot phase of a new international carbon offsetting mechanism for the aviation industry, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the carbon offset trade reporting initiative Ecosystem Marketplace have entered into a new partnership aimed at facilitating the transparency of the transaction of carbon credits eligible for airline offsetting under ICAO’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).

“Transparency has been fundamental to the design and implementation of CORSIA since its inception, and the ICAO Council welcomes this Ecosystem Marketplace agreement aimed at addressing its expectations for reliable data and analysis on the status and evolution of associated carbon markets,” highlighted ICAO Council President Mr. Salvatore Sciacchitano. “As things proceed we see CORSIA and other ICAO initiatives’ contributing to more and more voluntary commitments by aviation stakeholders to ambitious climate goals, including net zero targets.”

Through ICAO, States have agreed to an aspirational goal of carbon neutral growth from 2020. CORSIA contributes to the achievement of this, complementing a broader package of aviation CO2 reduction measures, such as technological innovations, operational improvements, and sustainable fuels. International aviation currently accounts for less than two percent of global CO2 emissions, but emissions from international air transport are expected to grow considerably in the coming decades. Climate impacts from aviation, with the exception of international air traffic, are addressed under States’ Paris Agreement commitments. To complement their Paris Agreement objectives, States have also committed to addressing emissions from international air traffic through agreements facilitated by ICAO, a UN agency.

CORSIA sets a baseline for emissions from international air traffic and requires airlines to offset emissions in excess of that baseline by purchasing high quality offsets that are subject to stringent eligibility criteria. It is part of a broader package of measures to achieve the ICAO global aspirational goals for international aviation.

“This encouraging new partnership with ICAO marks an important milestone for Ecosystem Marketplace and the aviation sector,”  said Stephen Donofrio, Director of Ecosystem Marketplace. “As CORSIA is a global scheme governed by a regulatory compliance model, the market data transparency resulting from this agreement will play an essential role in the sector’s pathway towards decarbonization, including complementary voluntary efforts.”

Ecosystem Marketplace (EM), an initiative of the nonprofit organization Forest Trends, acts as a market reporting and public information platform to ensure transparency and integrity, from supply to demand. EM’s new Global Carbon Hub, launched in early 2021 in response to growing demand for market data, expanded information services to include a dynamic, near-real time data dashboard and meta-registry.

Through the new partnership, EM will leverage its 16 years of experience reporting prices and volumes of carbon trades to offer new market data for offsets eligible for ICAO’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). ICAO will use this information to regularly inform States and the general public as part of the efforts of the Organization to enhance transparency and market confidence vis-à-vis CORSIA implementation. Beginning in Q3 2021, ICAO will integrate Ecosystem Marketplace data of CORSIA-eligible emissions units into its CORSIA public website and the monthly CORSIA newsletter shared with 193 Member States. Ecosystem Marketplace will also make the data available on its Global Carbon Hub Data Intelligence & Analytics Dashboard.

“ICAO and its Member States would benefit from information and analysis related to carbon market and CORSIA to be provided by Ecosystem Marketplace, a neutral third party nonprofit organization”, highlighted ICAO Director, Air Transport Bureau, Mohamed Rahma. 

“Forest Trends’ position has long been that carbon markets and other forms of climate finance need transparency and integrity if they are to deliver real results at the scale needed to meet Paris ambitions,” said Michael Jenkins, CEO and Founding President of Forest Trends. “I am delighted to embark on this  new partnership with ICAO.”

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Ecosystem Marketplace (www.ecosystemmarketplace.com) is an initiative of the non-profit organization Forest Trends, and a leading global source of information on environmental finance, markets, and payments for ecosystem services. As a web-based service, Ecosystem Marketplace publishes newsletters, breaking news, original feature articles, and annual reports about market-based approaches to valuing and financing ecosystem services. We believe that transparency is a hallmark of robust markets and that by providing accessible and trustworthy information on prices, regulation, science, and other market-relevant issues, we can contribute to market growth, catalyze new thinking, and spur the development of new markets and the policies and infrastructure needed to support them. Ecosystem Marketplace is financially supported by a diverse set of organizations including multilateral and bilateral government agencies, private foundations, and corporations involved in banking, investment, and various ecosystem services. 

A specialized agency of the United Nations, ICAO was created by governments in 1944 to support their diplomacy on international air transport matters. Since that time, countries have adopted over 12,000 standards and practices through ICAO which help to align their national regulations relevant to aviation safety, security, efficiency, capacity and environmental protection, enabling a truly global network to be realized. ICAO forums also provide opportunities for advice and advocacy to be shared with government decision-makers by industry groups, civil society NGOs, and other officially-recognized air transport stakeholders.

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Media contact: Genevieve Bennett, +1 202 298 3007, [email protected]