Airlines for America applauds EPA aircraft emissions standard proposal

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Airlines for American (A4A), an aviation industry trade organization, applauded Wednesday the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal to adopt the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) fuel efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions standards.

The global standard was agreed to by the Governing Council of ICAO in 2016, and endorsed by all ICAO member states as an international standard in 2017.

The standard applies to new models of commercial aircraft starting in 2020 and existing in-production models starting in 2023. The EPA’s proposal to adopt the ICAO standard will enable U.S. airlines to meet the industry’s goal to achieve carbon neutral growth in the near term and to cut net carbon emissions in half by 2050, A4A said.

Adopting the international standard is crucial to U.S. aircraft manufacturers to be able to sell their aircraft on the international market, and for U.S. airlines to be able to operate their aircraft in international service. Without the standard, the aircraft would not be able to get critical certifications necessary for international operations.

“EPA’s proposal to adopt ICAO’s fuel efficiency and CO2 certification standard for newly manufactured aircraft is good for our industry, for our country and for the world,” Nancy Young, A4A vice president, environmental affairs, said. “Although the U.S. airlines are already driven to be highly fuel- and carbon-efficient, this stringent new emissions standard will help U.S. airlines make a green industry even greener.”

A4A said U.S. airlines are already leading the fight against climate change through many different measures, including developing and deploying sustainable alternative jet fuels, investing in more fuel-efficient aircraft, and finding more efficient ways to operate. According to the group, between 2000 and 2019, U.S. airline carriers improved fuel efficiency by 40 percent. The industry transported 2.5 million passengers and 58,000 tons of cargo per day in 2019, while producing just 2 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, the group said.