ECAC holds seventh Environmental Forum

11 June 2024: ERA took part in the ECAC Environmental Forum held in DGAC offices in Paris on 29 May to discuss regulatory and legislative updates. The Forum focused on the current hot topics for the aviation climate transition.

On the first day, discussions focused on the implementation on non-CO2 impacts and SAF. The first panel was on the understanding of non-CO2 impact of aviation as there are still many questions left on this topic. Although it is generally acknowledged that aviation has non-CO2 impacts, it is still difficult to understand how to measure and mitigate contrails. However, the revision of EU ETS in May 2023 established MRV for non-CO2 effects that will need to be enforced by aircraft operators from January 2025, and if appropriate, the EC will submit a legislative proposal to mitigate non-CO2 effects by expanding the scope of EU ETS to CO2 emissions from 2028. On this topic, there is a general disagreement on if it is too soon to proceed with a MRV system with the risk of causing more climate damage, or whether we should implement it as soon as possible to learn more about it and adjust it in the future. For the moment, the aviation ecosystem recognises that only a limited number of flights are responsible for most of the impact (3 per cent of worldwide flights are responsible for 80 per cent of the impact). Meanwhile, airlines are preparing their efforts on this, especially with partnerships with national meteorological services that can help to adjust flight plans and to monitor and report non-CO2 effects. Nevertheless, there is still a need to put in place an international choice of metric for accurate prediction of the impact of a single flight. More flexibility from ATC is required, and confirmation of the benefit of SAF, verification means and an MRV that reflects reality. Hence there is still a lot to work on to progress on mitigation of non-CO2 effects.

On the other hand, a general presentation on SAF reminded delegates of the level of production and challenges that the EU will face soon with the implementation of the use of SAF, and especially in Europe with RefuelEU. Speakers clearly highlighted the emergency to ramp up SAF production and overcome barriers. The Commission was invited to update the status of ACT-SAF and speak about identified additional needs. Indeed, Europe will face limited feedstock availability to produce enough SAF and prices will be very sensitive to this situation. Other regions' situations were been mentioned: in the Middle East feedstock availability is also scarce, and the deployment of green technologies are unclear. But regarding Europe’s production, something that has been regularly mentioned and pushed by the European aviation industry in order to scale up the production and guarantee a fair and efficient SAF market is the implementation of a Book and Claim system. At a larger scale, IATA presented their SAF Integrity System to account, record and report emissions reductions from SAF use.

On the second day, discussions focused on international co-operation and regulations.