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International Civil Aviation Organization
About CORSIA
We are approved by the ICAO Council to supply emission reduction and removals credits to airlines for use towards their obligations under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA).
ICAO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that manages the standards that govern international aviation. Since emissions from flights between countries are not captured in any national Paris Agreement climate targets, ICAO approved the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) in 2016 as a global market-based mechanism to achieve carbon neutral growth in international aviation starting in 2020.
CORSIA is expected to reduce or offset 2.5 – 4 billion tonnes of CO2-e through 2035. Airlines from 118 countries representing more than 90 percent of international airline emissions have joined CORSIA’s voluntary first phase between 2021 and 2026. From 2027, compliance becomes mandatory for countries with large aviation industries.
ACR & CORSIA
Our approval as one of the first crediting programs reflects our commitment to ensuring carbon market integrity.
In 2020, ACR was among the first crediting programs approved by the ICAO Council to supply emission reduction and removals credits to airlines for use towards their obligations under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) for the 2021-2023 cycle. In 2021, we became the first crediting program approved by ICAO to supply post-2020 vintage credits in the 2021-2023 cycle. The decision was based on our program rules — which are aligned with Article 6 of the Paris Agreement — that ensure the avoidance of double counting of credits used for CORSIA with countries’ mitigation targets under the Paris Agreement.
ACR is approved for all project types, without limitations, for which the first crediting period began no earlier than January 1, 2016, for emissions reductions or removals that occur through December 31, 2023. All CORSIA-qualified credits are labelled on the ACR Registry.
In 2023, we became one of the first crediting programs to receive approval to supply credits for the 2024-2026 compliance period. Eligible credits include those issued to activities that started their first crediting period on or after January 1, 2016 and that represent emissions reductions that occurred from January 2021 through December 2026.
ICAO Eligible Emissions Units
The ICAO Council’s decisions follow recommendations from the 19-member Technical Advisory Body (TAB) that was established to evaluate programs’ compliance with Emissions Unit Criteria for offsetting requirements.
To date, ICAO has approved nine carbon crediting programs globally to supply offset credits for CORSIA. This includes six independent crediting programs and two government / multilateral crediting programs.
The list of all eligible emissions units and exclusions is publicly available on the ICAO CORSIA website.
2023: CORSIA Eligible Emissions Units
ACR Announcement
ICAO Website