Reasoning and rationale behind the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme in the aviation sector

Abstract: To reach the Paris-agreement target of no more than a 1,5 to 2 degree rise in global temperature, CO2 emissions need to reach net zero by 2050. This includes emissions from aviation. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has been designated emission reduction responsibility for transnational emissions. It is crucial to keep ICAO accountable for their responsibilities and for the policies they set out. ICAO has decided to implement a Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme (CORSIA) to begin in 2021. This is meant to add to their aspirational goals from 2012 of increasing aviation efficiency by 2% per year. Offsetting has been widely criticised for not being effective in terms of addressing climate change, and yet ICAO has non-the less chosen CORSIA as their key measure to address aviation’s emissions. Following a poststructuralist tradition of governmentality I analyse CORSIA contextually and relationally using Carol Bacchi’s 'What's the Problem Represented to Be?' (WRP) approach. I thus try to answer why ICAO is promoting CORSIA rather than other measures, by analysing various ICAO documents. I conclude my thesis by arguing that ICAO promotes CORSIA as a compromise between the diverging interests of external pressures versus internal organisational principles, external pressures demanding that the aviation sector takes measures to reduce their emissions and internal organisational principles requiring continued aviation development. The current governmentality of ICAO prevents the Organisation from pursuing measures that would lead to actual deep emission cuts. A shift of aviation governmentality will likely not come from ICAO unless the organisation undergoes a reform renewing the objectives of the organisations conventions.