CAEP/9-agreed certification requirement for the Aeroplane CO 2 Emissions Standard: a comment on ICAO Cir 337

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Circular Cir 337 is the first step towards ICAO establishing an Aeroplane CO 2 Emissions Standard to form part of Annex 16, Volume III to the Chicago Convention. It describes itself as ‘a work in progress’. This paper reviews Cir 337 against the background of flight physics, the published literature on aircraft fuel burn and CO 2 emissions and the current practices of the aircraft and engine manufacturers and the airline operators. We have taken, as our starting point, the aim of ICAO to reduce the fuel used per revenue tonne-kilometre performed and argue that the Breguet range equation, which captures all the relevant flight physics, should be the basis of the metric system underpinning the standard. Our overall conclusion is that Cir 337 provides an excellent basis for the initial regulation of aviation's CO 2 emissions and, further in the future, for developing measures to increase the fuel efficiency of the operational side of civil aviation. Our main criticism of the circular in its current form is that it does not address the ICAO goal of reducing fuel used per revenue tonne-kilometre performed and makes no reference to payload. This defect could be eliminated simply by omission of the exponent 0.24 of the Reference Geometric Factor ( RGF ) in the formula for the metric given in Chapter 2 (paragraph 2.2) of the circular. Retaining the RGF to the power unity in the metric and multiplying it by an appropriate value of the effective floor loading would convert it to what the 37 th Assembly of ICAO called for – a statement of fuel used per revenue tonne-kilometre performed. Finally, correlating the amended metric against design range, as determined from the measured specific air range and the key certificated masses, provides a sound scientific basis for an initial regulation to cap passenger aircraft emissions.