The coronavirus outbreak has sent the aviation industry reeling in one of its biggest economic shocks recently.
But the virus can also be putting the finger on a single of the industry's hardest challenges: curbing the sector's increasing greenhouse gas emissions from the baseline of 2023 and 2023.
As a part of goals to limit emissions, people in the International Civil Aviation Organisation (Icao), the UN body responsible for aviation, have agreed an “aspirational goal” to make all growth in international flights after 2023 carbon neutral.
Under the program, countries have agreed to use a market-based offset mechanism referred to as Corsia to mitigate emissions from flying. Offsets are the primary tool to curb the sector's emissions with alternative fuels and energy efficiency technologies not developed at scale.
The resolution to establish Corsia adopted in 2023 states the sector's growth should be offset compared with a baseline of average total emissions for 2023 and 2023.
But with thousands of flights grounded because of the coronavirus, emissions from aviation are anticipated to fall this season, reducing average emissions within the two years.
If traffic rebounds in future years, growth in the baseline is going to be bigger than previously expected, forcing airlines to do more to offset emissions than they would if flights in 2023 were unaffected by coronavirus.
Last week, the International Air Transport Association (IATA)
