EUROPEAN CIVIL AVIATION CONFERENCE - CONFÉRENCE EUROPÉENNE DE L'AVIATION CIVILE

Capacity-Building Programme for Environment

ECAC's commitment to environmental capacity building is long-standing, and ECAC's work programme recognises the need for environmental capacity building as a priority. Its environmental tasks already support ECAC Member States sharing information and building capacity mainly through the ECAC Environmental Forum but also through the work of the European Aviation and Environment Working Group (EAEG) co-chaired with the European Commission.

Environmental capacity building was prioritised after the 2016 Bratislava Declaration commitment to address needs that would arise from States requiring technical assistance in relation to the implementation of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).

The additional boost to environmental capacity building was made effective with the addition to the ECAC Secretariat in December 2020 of a Climate Change and Capacity-Building Specialist, seeking to support Member States in delivering their environmental obligations and to build on ECAC's previous capacity-building success in other aviation domains by further strengthening the competencies and knowledge of officials at all levels dealing with environment matters in ECAC Member States.

The programme's current main priority is supporting the achievement of ICAO’s goal of reaching net-zero carbon emissions for international aviation by 2050, in support of the UNFCCC Paris Agreement's goals, with a special focus on promoting sustainable aviation fuels (SAF).

Objectives

The ECAC environmental capacity-building programme has three broad objectives:

  • Objective 1: supporting ECAC Member States’ own efforts to fulfill ICAO environmental policy and regulatory requirements.
  • Objective 2: strengthening the competencies and knowledge of people dealing with environment matters in ECAC Member States.
  • Objective 3: promoting and supporting information sharing and policy awareness among ECAC Member States.

Tasks and responsibilities

The programme comprises, but is not limited to, the following activities:

  • supporting the implementation of CORSIA in application of ECAC's Bratislava Declaration, and to collect feedback from the experience of ECAC Member States;
  • supporting the development of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) policies, and promoting them to encourage the active engagement of ECAC Member States towards their large scale deployment in Europe and worldwide;
  • supporting the harmonised submission of 44 European State Action Plans for CO2 emissions reductions from international aviation to show European determination against climate change, and to mutualise efforts;
  • strengthening the competencies and knowledge of civil aviation personnel on climate change policies and promoting the establishment and consolidation of environmental structures and competencies;
  • supporting the development and update of guidance material/best practices/recommendations for the promotion of SAF; and
  • developing and promoting the use of best practice documentation/recommendations facilitating information sharing in other environmental areas, where a need for further European harmonisation is identified (including climate change mitigation long-term goals).

The ECAC environmental capacity-building programme will be implemented through workshops, webinars, on-site training, and targeted capacity building, addressing specific needs expressed by ECAC Member States.

All ECAC Member States identifying environmental capacity-building needs are invited to contact the ECAC Secretariat via the person responsible for the Environment Capacity-Building Programme.

Catalogue of ECAC capacity-building programme for environment

The ECAC capacity-building activities available to Member States to support their implementation of aviation environmental measures are compiled in a catalogue.

Download here the Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) training catalogue.

 

ECAC News on environmental matters

ECAC News n°79 - Environment ECAC News n°72
 

 

ECAC Spotlight on environmental matters

ECAC News n°72 - Spotlight on EAEG (Stefan Bickert and Magnus Gislev) ECAC News n°71 - Spotlight on ECAC AIRMOD (Darren Rhodes) ECAC News n°63 - Spotlighton the reorganisation of ECAC's environmental activities (Patrick Gandil)