Environment

The impacts of climate change, such as higher temperatures, sea-level rise and stronger storms, are an operational, infrastructure and business risk for the aviation sector. Our latest Challenges of Growth report shows that an increasing number of European aviation-sector stakeholders are aware of the risks posed by climate change, but fewer are yet to begin to adapt.

We contribute expertise and knowledge, to both the work of the ICAO-CAEP in this area and to policies on aviation and climate change developed by the European Commission (DG CLIMA).

We also develop resources on climate adaptation and resilience that provide information to support stakeholders with carrying out climate-change risk assessments and developing adaptation plans.

Since 2000, we have developed a series of models to support our Member States and the aviation community in estimating the magnitude of the environmental impacts that current or future air-traffic movements might have.

To date, we have three main models: AEM (for estimating fuel consumption and emissions), Open-ALAQS (for a detailed analysis of emissions around airports) and IMPACT (for a combined analysis of the impact of noise, fuel consumption and emissions generated). These models are used to assess future regulatory policy options such as introducing tighter aircraft noise and emissions standards and future trends.

In addition, they are recommended models for conducting environmental impact assessments in SESAR. All of these models successfully passed ICAO’s stress tests in 2008-2009. They are part of the approved suite of assessment models used by the ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP).

We provide support to stakeholders in the assessment of the environmental benefits and impacts following the implementation of new or existing operational concepts. Our support comes via a range of services: independent evaluation, audit, undertaking environmental impact assessments, or other operational and technical analyses. We liaise closely with European institutions, industry stakeholder organisations, lead the European Task Force on the implementation of CCO and CDO, and on behalf of ICAO, we lead several global environment and efficiency analyses.

In addition, we support our operational stakeholders at and around airports through the Collaborative Environmental Management (CEM) Working Arrangement, described in our CEM Specification. CEM provides a framework for operational stakeholders at an airport to collaborate and identify synergies, quantify impacts and reach compromises from an operational environmental perspective with the aim to minimise their environmental impact. The collaborative approach of the CEM Working Arrangement can support the search for solutions that ensure the maximum potential for current operations and the sustainable growth of airports.

We cooperate in Europe and worldwide to boost the capabilities of State and operational stakeholders in making coordinated actions that will minimise the environmental challenges facing the aviation sector. We work closely with DG MOVE and DG CLIMATE ACTION in the European Commission, the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) in support of EU and wider European policy initiatives. We contribute to, and attend European and global industry environmental working arrangements; facilitating the exchange of knowledge and best practise.

Globally, our experts make substantial contributions to the work of the United Nations’ International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), whose Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) is responsible for setting worldwide standards targeted at mitigating aviation’s environmental impact. This work has been key to the development of new ICAO Standards on noise, CO2, emissions offsetting (CORSIA) and particulate matter (nvPM) standards, as well as the development of guidance material that highlights best practice. We participate in the ECAC/EC European Aviation and Environment Working Group, which coordinates European contributions to ICAO.