ICAO Launches Program To Speed Aviation Decarbonization

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) closed its three-day Aviation Climate Week in Montréal on Friday by launching a program to help member states accelerate decarbonization efforts.

Called “Assistance, Capacity-building and Training for the Long-Term Aspirational Goal,” the program aims to help ICAO members achieve a target adopted at their 2022 assembly: net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. It will help countries draft and revise climate action plans, gauge their emissions cuts, and secure climate financing.

More than 500 government, industry, and financial-sector representatives attended the gathering. Delegates landed on a shared message: countries may take different routes to decarbonization, but they “must remain harmonized and coordinated under ICAO,” the organization said.

Scaling clean energy remains a central objective. Participants pushed for stronger policy frameworks under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (Corsia), more money for sustainable aviation fuels, and wider use of the ICAO Finvest Hub before Corsia enters its next phase in 2027. That phase will require most member states to offset their emissions for the first time after years of voluntary participation, with exemptions for the least-developed economies and smallest markets.

Climate Week delegates pointed to operational changes as the quickest source of near-term emissions reductions, while acknowledging that emerging technologies “will require the continued development of harmonized international standards,” according to ICAO.