Rabat - Within the framework of the organization's contribution to the wide-ranging efforts and measures undertaken by the International Civil Aviation Organization and its member states to reduce aviation impact on pollution, the Arab Civil Aviation Organization organized a workshop on the "National Plan for Carbon Reduction", via telecommunication technology, from 19 to 21 April 2021.

This workshop witnessed the participation of 42 officials in charge of environmental protection in the civil aviation authorities, airlines within the Arab region, and environment dedicated entities, representing 13 member states of the Arab Civil Aviation Organization.

During his opening speech, HE Eng. Abdenbi Manar, Director General of the Organization, called for the necessity to launch a debate on the challenges and difficulties faced by Arab countries in preparing their national plans for carbon emissions reduction, and to exchange experiences among the participants, especially with regard to basic data for baseline, fuel consumption and carbon emissions, the expected results of CO2 emissions emanating from international aviation at the country level, the commitment of stakeholders within the national scheme, and other related topics.

In this regard, His Excellency expressed the readiness of the Organization's General Administration to coordinate with experts of Arab countries to accompany and provide support to countries wishing to benefit from the experiences of other countries in the field of environmental protection.

During the workshop, the two facilitators, Dr. Ali Al-Shaar, Head of the Climatology Department at the General Directorate of Civil Aviation in the Lebanese Republic, and Eng.Abd al-Ghaffar Al-Sayed, General Manager in charge of the Inspection of stationary equipment at the Civil Aviation Authority of  the Arab Republic of Egypt, exposed basic concepts related to the national scheme on emissions’ reduction, especially:

• Objectives for developing and presenting the State action plan on activities designed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions;
• Steps to be undertaken to develop or update the State action plan;
• the role of a SAP contact point;
• Create a National Team on the National Action Plan (SAP);
• the content of the State's national action plan;
• Baseline scenario;
• List of selected measures proposed to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions emanating from international civil aviation;
• The relationship between the State’s action plan on carbon dioxide emissions reduction and the CORSIA;
• Challenges, difficulties and lessons learned.

During the last day of the workshop, a session was dedicated to the presentations of some representatives of the countries that have already sent their plans to ICAO in order to review their experience in this regard. In this context, the representative of the United Arab Emirates gave a presentation on the lessons learned, challenges and difficulties they faced in preparing the first and second versions of the national plan. Representatives of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the States of Qatar, the States of Iraq and the Kingdom of Morocco also made presentations focusing on the difficulties and challenges related to preparing the national plan.