The International Air Transport Association (IATA) welcomed the decision by representatives at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to agree a CO2 efficiency Standard for commercial aircraft.

The Standard, which has taken six years of painstaking negotiation and technical work, was approved by ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection.

The Standard, to come into force from 2020, will ensure that CO2 emissions from new aircraft will have to meet a minimum baseline (defined as a maximum fuel burn per flight kilometre which must not be exceeded).

From 2023 this will also apply to existing aircraft designs still in manufacture at that date.