CANSO calls for states to take greater climate change responsibility

After intensive discussions the HLM produced a Declaration which endorsed the ICAO Program of Action proposed by the Group on International Aviation and Climate Change to achieve an annual fuel efficiency improvement of 2% per annum, 0.5% higher than the figure the aviation industry believes is realistic. In a series of interventions, CANSO Secretary General Alexander ter Kuile drew attention to the 0.5% gap between the industry commitment and the States regulatory proposal, arguing that States themselves have a huge opportunity to deliver the extra 0.5% through their own actions. He said: There are four steps States could implement immediately to support the environment:

• Set appropriate governance arrangements over all aviation industry players with clear performance targets for all
• Empower management with performance-based organisations, with the freedom to focus on service delivery, free from political interference
• Create performance-focused regulations that incentivize, stimulate and reward best practices; and
• Improve Civil-Military airspace cooperation.

While we welcome the ICAO HLM declaration as an important step towards reducing aviation emissions, it is disappointing that the ICAO HLM chose not to take up our suggestion that the States themselves have a key role to play in reducing aviation emissions through measures such as airspace design and access. States need to take greater responsibility for climate change and they can do more to help ANSPs. Our industry urgently needs a more efficient and customer-focused approach to service delivery, and such changes will only result from appropriate and effective State policy-making.