The domestic airline industry has embarked on talks with National Treasury around costeffective solutions ahead of the looming Carbon Tax Bill which is expected to be implemented next year.
“Currently only domestic airlines are affected by the Carbon Tax Bill which exempts international airlines. But there is pending global legislation around carbon emissions for the international aviation industry and local industry is hoping to adopt the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (Corsia),” said Airlines Association of Southern Africa (Aasa) CEO Chris Zweigenthal.
He believes this will eliminate the need for domestic airlines and international airlines to comply with two separate carbon offset initiatives.
“The reduction of costs, or at least the containment of increases, remains a priority for the airline industry in Africa,” commented Zwiegenthal. Corsia – which was adopted at the 39th session of the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organisation (Icao) Assembly in 2016 – comes into effect on a voluntary basis in 2021 until 2023.
Phase 1 of the regulation will kick in from 2024 to 2026. An International Air Transport Association (Iata) spokesperson explained that the aim of the Corsia regulation was to address any annual increase in total CO2 emissions from international civil aviation above 2020 levels and contribute to the industry’s commitment to carbon neutral growth from 2020.
Iata manager for Environment Policy, Michel Adam, said that all airlines operating international flights were mandated to monitor their fuel consumption emissions and report them to their national authorities from January 1, 2019.
He said the airline association was embarking on an awareness programme to help airlines understand the Corsia implications and what they needed to do to ready themselves for the eventual mandatory participation.
Michael Schneider, Iata assistant director for Carbon Offset Business Development, added that there would be some “very specific technical requirements” for airlines to comply with Corsia. Zwiegenthal said five African countries – Kenya, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Zambia and Gabon – had already volunteered to participate.
