Decarbonization of aviation: the ICAO FTG/04 is in Turin
Turin is the city chosen to host, from July 24 to 28, the event of ICAO, the International Civil Aviation Organization of the United Nations, to discuss and develop criteria on sustainability assessment of Sustainable Aviation Fuels wordwide among experts nominated by ICAO’s member Countries. The Politecnico has been among the latter for years: as part of the CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation) program, developed by ICAO to regulate the process of decarbonization of civil aviation, the University has been nominated by the European Commission for co-leading the CoreLCA subgroup, which aims at defining the sustainability framework for the application of this offsetting scheme for alternative fuels, as well as by ENAC as Italian representative. The Politecnico di Torino is in fact already supporting, in a wider effort, the Italian Ministry for Transport (MIT) and ENAC in defining the roadmap for decarbonizing international aviation.
The initiative reflects ICAO's commitment to progressively curb its emissions, so to reduce its impact on the environment. The UN body, International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), was stablished to help countries share their skies to their mutual benefit. ICAO assists the 193 Contracting States to the Chicago Convention as they cooperate here to adopt standards, practices, and policies for international civilian flight. Industry and civil society groups, in addition to relevant multilateral organizations, contribute importantly to these ICAO outcomes as “Invited Organizations”.
ICAO's commitment, which aims precisely at a significant reduction in international civil aviation emissions, fits in the ambitious target set by Europe for this sector. In particular, the recently agreed regulation known as “RefuelEU aviation” mandates for increasing volumes of alternative fuels, over the next decade, to be make available in all European airports. The goals the sectors have ahead are challenging, and Politecnico di Torino is ready to give its contribution through the Fit4Foresight-FUEL group, recently established and coordinated by Professor David Chiaramonti, Vice Chancellor for Internationalization at the Politecnico. The Fit4Foresight-FUEL group carries out scenario, sustainability, and market analysis in the field of alternative sustainable fuels and biorefining: all this by cooperating with the institutional and industrial actors involved in ICAO, ensuring a sustainable transition, limiting market distortions, and respecting the peculiarities of ICAO member countries and their economic operators.
"It is a great pleasure – Chiaramonti emphasizes – to host such important meeting here in Turin, held this time outside the ICAO’s Headquartes in Montreal, Canada. The large participation of more than 100 nominated experts from all over the World to Turin demonstrates the strong commitment of Politecnico di Torino in support of the transition towards a greener economy and industry”.
“Having ICAO/FTG experts here in Turin – Dr. Matteo Prussi, researcher at Politecnico and co-lead of CoreLCA, commented – is an excellent opportunity to show the work Politecnico di Torino has been doing for supporting the transition of aviation, from a technical point of view”.
