International Air Transport Association has expressed the hope that India will join Carbon Offsetting and Reporting Scheme for International Aviation popularly called CORSIA which is the market-based measure for international aviation to measure carbon emission.

“India has expressed its concerns but also indicated during the ICAO Assembly that it is reviewing. To be honest India came to the debate quiet late. There is really a question of understanding the implications of CORSIA for India where aviation is growing very quickly and emissions are growing very quickly. India is also a signatory to the Paris agreement we would hope that between now and 2020 India will also join CORSIA as a way to help address its emission,” Paul Steele, Senior Vice President, Member and External Relations told Business Line on the side line of Global Media Day Event here on Thursday.

Meanwhile, with concerns about saving the environment growing, the global airline industry is doing its bit with over 5,500 commercial flights being operated by using a mix of alternative fuels on regular flights.

In the United States, United Airlines regularly uses mix of alternate fuel for flights between Los Angeles and San Francisco. IATA officials told Business Line that the airline had signed a long term take off agreement with a producer who takes urban waste basically house hold waste from as Vegas turns it into jet fuel which is then supplied to Los Angeles airport

IATA officials said that the Amsterdam headquartered KLM Airlines has been running a series of flights using alternate fuels while the German airline Lufthansa ran over a 1,000 flights between Frankfurt and Hamburg to test the long term viability of using a mix of bio fuels in their flights.

On the Government side Norway put a target in place by 2020 10 per cent of all fuel coming out of airports in Norway must be from alternative sources. IATA officials said that fuel is being produced from waste from the forest industry.

“One of the myths about aviation alternate fuel is that they need to be produced from crops that are planted specifically to make fuel. But that is not the case,” Paul pointed out.

In response to a question on what per cent of global flights during 2016 were operated with a mix of alternate fuel, Paul said “it is a very small percentage”.

(This Correspondent is in Geneva at the invitation of International Air Transport Association)

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