ACR Approved by ICAO to Supply Offset Credits for CORSIA Compliance
ARLINGTON VA, March 16, 2020 – American Carbon Registry (ACR), a nonprofit enterprise of Winrock International, is pleased to announce that ACR was approved on Friday, March 13, 2020 by the Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to supply eligible ACR-issued emission reduction units for compliance under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).
The CORSIA is a global market-based mechanism approved by ICAO in 2016 to achieve carbon neutral growth in international aviation starting in 2020. CORSIA is expected to reduce or offset 2.5 billion tonnes of CO2-e through 2035.
The ICAO Council’s approval of programs to supply eligible emissions units for the CORSIA follows recommendations from the 19-member Technical Advisory Body (TAB) that was established to evaluate programs’ compliance with Emissions Unit Criteria for offsetting requirements in the 2021-2023 pilot phase of CORSIA.
ACR’s program application for evaluation by the TAB, submitted on July 12, 2019, included all ACR activity types and methodologies currently approved and active for crediting emission reductions and removals.
ACR’s program application was approved for all scopes for activities, without limitations, for which the first crediting period began no earlier than January 1, 2016 for emissions reductions that occur through December 31, 2020. The list of all eligible emissions units and exclusions will soon be publicly available on the ICAO CORSIA website.
“ACR appreciates the ICAO Council’s decision based on the rigorous assessment of programs undertaken by the TAB,” stated Mary Grady of ACR. “The international aviation sector has made remarkable progress in a short amount of time on establishing a new global framework to reduce emissions and combat climate change. With this important milestone, we are ready to support implementation of the CORSIA.”
ACR discussed its approval and eligible emissions reduction scopes and methodologies in a webinar on March 18th, 2020. The recording of the webinar can be accessed here.
