The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) has developed a guide and is planning a webinar to help clear up confusion surrounding compliance with the European Trading Systems (ETS) and the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA). Released this week during EBACE 2024, the guide, “Aiming for ETS & CORSIA Compliance,” guides compliance with the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), its Swiss and UK counterparts, and CORSIA.
To be held June 26, the free webinar will provide an overview of the highlights of the guide and will detail scenarios that operators have encountered.
“ETS and CORSIA requirements are complex and still evolving,” said Claude Hurley, IBAC director of environment and flight operations. “Our goal with this guide was to help business aircraft operators gain a better understanding of the potential impact of these schemes on their flight operations.”
Collaborating with IBAC on the guide was Martina Becher, ETS and More consultant.
“Having been involved in ETS compliance since 2009, observing the continuous increase of complexity linked to those regulations, we have strived to filter all the relevant information into one concise guidance document to serve as a main reference for aircraft operators globally,” Becher said.
She noted that given that the regulations evolve, having a comprehensive document would be difficult. However, Becher maintained the guide “will help operators determine what to consider regarding these schemes and provide useful links to additional information and contact details for further advice.“
Hurley added: “Our role is really to help facilitate an introduction to the topic for the business aviation community as a whole,”
He noted that IBAC has received feedback from operators that it has been hard to understand whether or not they are captured by the different programs at all. However, Hurley said, “For regulators, ignorance of the law is not necessarily an excuse for not following the law and that's the same in or outside of aviation. And so this is essentially a campaign to bring awareness to our community.”
Operators need to understand how these programs apply to them and whether they need to access resources or other expertise to manage compliance.
According to Becher, various operators, particularly those from outside Europe, were not aware they could be captured because they may have only a few flights in and out of the continent and a couple of intra-European flights. They were captured and heard from authorities maybe two months before they must come into compliance.
“They are just overwhelmed because they don't know what to do. The process when you do this for the first time is quite lengthy,” she said. For those not well-versed in the programs, two months is usually not long enough.
While EU-ETS has existed for some time, more recently Switzerland and the UK have implemented ETS schemes, Becher further noted. “It’s added so much complexity.” She cited as an example a case where an operator had a single flight in the UK but unknowingly met the threshold for its program because the UK also counts flights throughout Europe.
Hurley stressed that the program is for global operators not just for those within the EU.
One of the key items within the guide is a decision tree meant as an initial step on whether the operator is captured by the programs. The operator can’t automatically assume that it is permanently exempt because the dynamic changes depending on the number of flights and where they land.