SGS Tecnos and AENOR have updated their accreditation for the new revision of the CORSIA aviation sector's emissions offsetting scheme in order to align it with the new guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in relation to accreditation and inspection requirements.

In this regard, last December, ENAC prepared and published the Transition Plan for managing this change, which includes, among other things, the reference to the ISO/IEC 17029 and ISO 14065 standards as standards for accrediting verifiers, as well as the ISO 14064-3 for the verification activity, and which has culminated in updating the accreditations granted so far.

 

CORSIA, an international aviation scheme for tackling climate change

CORSIA main objective, within the scope of fighting climate change, is to limit and reduce CO2 emissions' impact from international aviation through compensation mechanisms . Specifically, it seeks to ensure that this industry's growth does not lead to additional increases in CO² emissions. To this end, in addition to other measures such as developing and using sustainable fuels and operational measures and technological developments, the scheme includes setting up an international market for carbon credits in order to enable emissions generated by flights are offset.

To provide this scheme with the maximum guarantees, the operator's annual emissions report must be inspected by a body accredited by the national accreditation body of each participating country, ENAC in Spain.

This is the first assessment and control activity which requires accreditation within the scheme. However, it is expected that in the short term this requirement will be extended to other activities such as the mechanism for cancelling emission units themselves.