Arab
Civil Aviation Commission, represented by General Civil Aviation
Authority, joined the global aviation community in taking an
important step closer to establishing a worldwide CO2 Standard for
aircraft, as the International Civil Aviation Organization’s
(ICAO’s) Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP)
unanimously agreed on a CO2 metric system during their last meeting
this month in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The metric system
characterizes the CO2 emissions for aircraft types with varying
technologies.
The
Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection declared that the new
CO2 metric system was agreed on by CAEP States, as well as
intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, addresses
emissions from a wide variety of aircraft on a fair and transparent
basis. It includes factors which account for fuselage geometry,
maximum take-off weight and fuel burn performance at three different
cruise conditions and is a major move forward.
H.E.
Saif Al Suwaidi, Director General of General Civil Aviation Authority
(GCAA) and Chairman of Arab Civil Aviation Commission (ACAC) said
that Arab States fully supports CAEP decisions and will contribute in
developing the metric system. He also congratulated the international
civil aviation community on reaching such agreement and considered it
as great step for the civil aviation future.
The
CAEP agreement on the new aircraft CO2 metric system will allow the
States and observer organizations that together comprise the CAEP to
move onto the next stages in the development of an ICAO CO2 aircraft
Standard. This work includes the definition of certification
procedures to support the agreed metric system and the Standard’s
scope of applicability.
“Members
of Arab States contributed actively in the working group of CO2
Standards” Eng. Maryam Al Balooshi, Manager Environment Studies at
GCAA and Head of Environment Committee of ACAC said. “The coming
phases require enhanced cooperation between ACAC’s Environment
Committee and CAEP to develop an action plan,” she added. Eng. Al
Belooshi represented ACAC at the Petersburg meeting this month.
This
metric system is a very important milestone which comes after
extensive technical discussions. ICAO was able to achieve consensus
between the States who serve on the CAEP, in addition to the major
airlines, aircraft manufacturers, environmental NGOs and other
stakeholders who serve as observers to this process, highlights that
there is a great deal of motivation in every quarter of our sector to
achieve real progress on aviation environmental performance.
