(Geneva, Switzerland, 2-3 October 2018) The sustainability of international civil aviation is a key priority for ICAO and its Member States today.

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1 Distinguished colleagues, Ladies and gentlemen, Opening Address by the ICAO Council President, Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, to the 2018 Air Transport Action Group (ATAG) Global Sustainable Aviation Summit (Geneva, Switzerland, 2-3 October 2018) The sustainability of international civil aviation is a key priority for ICAO and its Member States today. Governments worldwide greatly appreciate how aviation s ability to connect us all, whether socially, economically, or personally, has never been more important to our planet s shared prosperity. ATAG Summits and your Beyond Borders publication play a key role in helping our sector to appreciate these unique aviation benefits. They are also excellent means by which we can coordinate public and private sector actions, whether toward collaborative air transport targets or the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). Since the last ICAO Assembly in 2016, the implementation of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation or CORSIA has been one of the main priorities for ICAO. I am accordingly very pleased to highlight here that the Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) supporting CORSIA were adopted by the ICAO Council this past June. I would also emphasize that the achievement of this milestone, in such a short period of time, is clearly representative of the increasing focus on climate change priorities which ICAO is now witnessing in every world region. We are seeing unprecedented mobilization by governments and industry stakeholders to ensure that everyone will be fully prepared when the CORSIA SARPs become applicable next year.

2 2 The Council has also recognized that a number of ICAO Member States need targeted assistance in order for this deadline to be met, and I d underscore that time here is of the essence. All States with operators performing international flights must be ready to monitor their fuel use, and estimate their CO 2 emissions, as of 1 January In order to address this, the ICAO Council has endorsed a new ICAO ACT- CORSIA Programme which focuses on the Assistance, Capacity-building and Training now urgently needed. ACT-CORSIA was launched this July, focused on the development of operators Emissions Monitoring Plans and the establishment of States national regulatory frameworks. One of ACT-CORSIA s key components is the Buddy Partnerships it will foster; whereby donor States will provide tailored assistance to recipient States in aid of the latter s CORSIA implementation requirements. As we speak, 15 such donor States are now assisting 90 recipient States throughout the world, ensuring that No Country is Left Behind. At the same time, our colleagues at IATA are busy preparing their member operators through a series of CORSIA regional workshops, and it is my pleasure to recognize and applaud those supportive actions here today. While appreciating these developments, I wish to urge all to remain engaged as there is still a lot of work ahead of us. ICAO is currently hard at work on what are now being referred to as the CORSIA Implementation Elements. The ICAO Council has made significant progress on two of these Elements this year, notably through its approval of the 2018 CORSIA CO 2 Estimation and Reporting Tool (CERT), which is available free of charge, as well as by its endorsement of the CORSIA Central Registry (CCR) framework. ICAO s next steps will focus on ensuring that the remaining CORSIA Implementation Elements are kept on track. We ll therefore be prioritizing four key areas in preparation for the upcoming 40th ICAO Assembly in 2019, with the first of these being Eligible Emissions Units. During its next Session, the Council will be considering the results of the testing of the criteria and processes relevant to the effective evaluation of projects which generate carbon credits.

3 3 The second focus will be on CORSIA-eligible fuels. Work in this regard is now ongoing with respect to life-cycle emissions values, a robust verification framework, and effective sustainability criteria. The third item on this list is the CORSIA Central Registry (CCR), which is expected to be finalized by the end of The development and testing of the CCR is expected to take place through the end of 2019, prior to making the CCR operational in early The last Implementation Element to address before the Assembly involves Verification. ICAO and the International Accreditation Forum (IAF) are presently finalizing an agreement to ensure that verifiers will be available and ready to undertake CORSIA verification. The goal here of course will be to have accredited verification bodies in place by early 2020, when airline operators Emissions Reports will need to begin to be submitted. Ladies and gentlemen, Despite all of these achievements and plans surrounding CORSIA, we should not lose sight of the fact that it is but one of the elements of the ICAO Basket of Measures set-out to address CO 2 Emissions from international aviation. In this regards, steady progress is being accomplished through our Organization in the areas of new technologies, improved operations, and sustainable aviation fuels. Technologies are evolving faster than ever and we need to be ready on the regulatory side for their certification. Hybrid, electric and new supersonic aircraft are examples of such challenges ahead of us. Keeping track of progress on all elements of the Basket of Measures is critical for ensuring that we are progressing towards an environmentally sustainable aviation. And it is through their State Action plans that ICAO Member States can determine progress toward such sustainability and the measures that need to be taken to reach it. The State Action Plans were introduced in 2010, and became one of the most successful voluntary programmes in ICAO. So far, 105 action plans have been submitted to ICAO. A major element for its success was the tailored assistance to States for developing such Plans and for the implementation of measures included therein. Of note, is the project between ICAO and the European Union, supporting 14 States in Africa and in the Caribbean.

4 4 Also in partnership with the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), a pilot project of a solar to gate energy installation in Jamaica was implemented. The Project not only addressed renewable energy but also was the first one that was CAT-5 hurricane compliant, thereby addressing adaptation as well. With the intensification of extreme weather events, be it hurricanes, sand, snow and ice storms, or volcanic activity, aviation needs to be ready and ICAO has a leadership role in supporting our States with adaptation measures. In fact, both mitigation and adaptation are part of what characterizes a green airport, a concept that is evolving almost daily, and requires that environmental considerations and the concept of circular economy be encompassed in the planning, management and operation of such facilities. A number of airports and aircraft manufacturers have also taken the concept of waste management one step further, committing themselves to the design of products and services which integrate resource efficiency dimensions on a truly life-cycle basis. While climate change gets most of the headlines in ICAO s environmental activities, our work continues on other environmental areas such as aircraft noise and local air quality, and a new Standard for Non-Volatile Particular Matters is expected next year. SDGs. Many of these various initiatives are directly or indirectly supportive of the 17 UN In concluding now, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to remind you that 2019 will be the 75th anniversary of ICAO, and of world governments coming together to share their skies under the Chicago Convention in support of a more peaceful and prosperous future for us all. Environmental progress will be critical to this shared future, and in that regard I would also like to acknowledge here the 35th anniversary of the ICAO Committee on Aviation Environmental protection (CAEP), taking place this coming 5 December, and appreciate the incredible environmental progress it has helped us to make. I wish to also recall that 2019 will mark the 50th Anniversary of the development of the first aviation environmental SARPs as Annex 16 to the Convention. And the 40th Session of the ICAO Assembly is expected to set further agendas for the sustainable development of aviation into the future. ICAO therefore views the occasion of our 75th Anniversary in 2019 as a tremendous opportunity for our sector to highlight the incredible environmental progress it is making, and to show the world how the next 75 years of international flights is being built on a much greener foundation thanks to the actions and commitments of everyone here today.

5 5 Our Member States greatly appreciate how air operators, airports, air navigation service providers and manufacturers have come together around this noble cause, and I am confident that by continuing to work together, through ICAO, the future of international aviation will be a brighter and more sustainable one for our societies, our economies, and our planet. Thank you.