Washington, 15 February 2013.  The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) today welcomed the February 14 announcement by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) of significant progress on new standards for aircraft CO2 emissions and noise.

ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) reached consensus agreement on a new more stringent noise level for new design aircraft, to be implemented in two stages by 2020.  The agreement establishes a maximum allowable noise level required by the ICAO noise certification standard for civil airplanes.  The new level is 7 EPNdB (effective perceived noise level in decibels) below the current ICAO Chapter 4 standard.  In addition, for aircraft below 8.6 tons the limits were made progressively quieter for lighter aircraft.  The new standard will be presented to the ICAO Council for review and approval in June 2013 and subsequently for endorsement at the ICAO General Assembly in September-October 2013.

With regard to work on the development of a CO2 standard for new aircraft, CAEP also reached agreement on new certification procedures.  This follows agreement in 2012 on a metric to characterize CO2 emissions from turbine powered aircraft irrespective of their mission or design.

Technical experts from GAMA member companies, the manufacturers of general aviation airplanes and engines, have been active and constructive participants in the ICAO process that has allowed the global community to reach these milestones.  GAMA Senior Vice President for International and Environmental Affairs Ed Smith stated, "We congratulate the hardworking experts from our own member companies as well as from other aviation industry sectors, stakeholders from the environmental community and national authorities who worked together to achieve these encouraging results."

"The results at ICAO with regard to a CO2 standard demonstrate that the aviation manufacturing industry continues to do its part to help the global aviation community to meet our ambitious aspirational goals to reduce carbon emissions from aviation by 50 percent in absolute terms by 2050 compared to 2005" continued Smith.  With regard to the new noise standard, Smith added, "Business aviation leads the way in implementing technologies and operational procedures that reduce the noise footprint of our products.  It is important that national and local authorities follow ICAO standards and refrain from imposing operational restrictions that diminish the economic value of aviation and threaten jobs and prosperity in communities."

The milestone agreements reached at ICAO are an encouraging sign of the seriousness with which the global aviation community takes its environmental responsibility, but much work remains yet to be done, particularly with regard to completing the development of a CO2 standard for new aircraft on the aggressive timetable agreed at the 37th ICAO General Assembly in 2010.  GAMA and its member companies in the United States, Europe, Brazil and Canada remain committed to achievement of this ambitious goal.