Aviation is the first industry to suggest a global approach to the application of a single MBM to manage its climate change impact. This keeps aviation in the forefront of industries on managing carbon emissions. It was also the first to agree global targets. These are: improving fuel efficiency by 1.5% annually to 2020, capping net emissions with CNG2020, and cutting emissions in half by 2050 compared to 2005. And it was also the first to agree on a global strategy to achieve them. 

An MBM is one of the four pillars of the aviation industry’s united strategy on climate change. Improvements in technology, operations and infrastructure will deliver the long-term solution for aviation’s sustainability. “Today’s agreement focuses on a single global MBM as part of a basket of measures. A single MBM will be critical in the short-term as a gap-filler until technology, operations and infrastructure solutions mature. So we cannot take our eye off the ball on developing sustainable low-carbon alternative fuels, achieving the Single European Sky or the host of other programs that will improve aviation’s environmental performance,” said Tyler. 

An MBM should be designed to deliver real emissions reductions, not revenue generation for governments. The principles agreed apply to emissions growth post-2020. “Airlines are delivering results against their climate change commitments. For example, we are on track to achieve our 1.5% average annual fuel efficiency target. We need governments to be serious partners as well. Developing an MBM must not become an excuse for revenue generation by cash-strapped governments, or for avoiding incentivizing investments in new technologies and sustainable low-carbon alternative fuels,” said Tyler. 

A summary of the principles of the resolution includes the following: 

- Setting the industry and individual carrier baselines using the average annual total emissions over the period 2018–2020. 

- Agreeing to provisions/adjustments for recognizing early movers, benchmarked for 2005–2020 with a sunset by 2025, accommodating new market entrants for their initial years of operation and fast growing carriers. 

- Adopting an equitable balance for determining individual carrier responsibilities that includes consideration of an ‘emissions share’ element (reflecting the carrier’s share of total industry emissions) and a post-2020 ‘growth’ element (reflecting the carrier’s growth above baseline emissions). 

- Reporting and verification of carbon emissions that is based on a global standard to be developed by ICAO, simple and scalable based on the size and complexity of the operator, instituting a periodic CNG2020 performance review cycle that revises individual elements and parameters as appropriate.