The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has marked the tenth anniversary of the 2016 ICAO Assembly resolution establishing CORSIA, the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, and used the occasion to call on governments to strengthen the framework and to shape the European Union's ongoing review of its Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) accordingly. IATA describes CORSIA as the first global market-based measure for an industrial sector. This is an advocacy statement from the airline industry body, and its positions on the EU ETS are IATA's own.
CORSIA at Ten Years: IATA's Figures
According to IATA, more than 130 countries now participate in CORSIA, and by the end of this year the scheme is expected to have mitigated approximately 200 million tonnes of CO2. IATA estimates that from 2027 CORSIA will cover approximately 85% of global emissions, a figure the release does not define further, and that up to USD 120 billion could be mobilised in climate finance through to the end of the scheme to support emissions reduction and carbon removal projects. Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA's Senior Vice President Sustainability and Chief Economist, framed CORSIA as a global solution to a global challenge that preserves a level playing field for aviation while channelling climate finance around the world.
What the EU Is Considering, as IATA Describes It
IATA says the EU is considering proposals to extend the EU ETS to destinations within 5,000 km of the EU, using Frankfurt as the geographic centre, and to create a mechanism through which comparable carbon-pricing systems could be developed with third countries. IATA refers to that mechanism as "EU ETS as a Service." The European Commission's own July proposal, which still requires approval by the European Parliament and Council, states that it keeps close alignment with CORSIA by continuing to implement it in EU law and by including a deduction mechanism intended to prevent double carbon pricing where both systems would apply to the same flight, and it links the expansion to stronger support for SAF and cleaner propulsion.
IATA's Objections and Cost Estimate
IATA's position is that the review should reinforce CORSIA as the global framework rather than encourage overlapping regional or bilateral systems. Thomas Reynaert, IATA's Senior Vice President External Affairs, argued that Europe would achieve more for climate action and competitiveness by directing aviation revenues toward sustainable aviation fuels, infrastructure and emerging technologies than by adding carbon costs that, in his words, do not address the sector's underlying energy constraints. IATA also points to the absence of an impact assessment on widening the ETS scope, which it says leaves unclear the potential effects on third countries, international connectivity, competitiveness and the functioning of CORSIA, and cites its own estimate that the proposed expansion would increase EU ETS compliance costs by 40% to EUR280 billion over 2027-2040. That figure comes from IATA's policy paper and is not an independent or Commission estimate.
IATA's Specific Asks on SAF
On SAF, IATA calls for the EU to strengthen the SAF allowances mechanism, with greater support available immediately and not only from 2029, and to eliminate geographic production restrictions and additional conditions that it says limit support for sustainability-compliant SAF pathways. It also asks that aviation-generated ETS revenues be ringfenced for SAF production, infrastructure and emerging aviation technologies. The release does not detail what the current proposal's SAF conditions are, so these asks are best read as IATA's characterisation rather than a description of the legislative text.
Source: IATA, 6 October 2026.
