Mauritius will participate in the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) on a voluntary basis as from the year 2024. CORSIA is meant to offer a harmonised way to reduce emissions from international aviation, minimising market distortion, while respecting the special circumstances and respective capabilities of Member States.
Through this scheme, airlines would compensate their international flights carbon dioxide emissions on CORSIA routes (route between two participating States) by purchasing carbon units. A carbon unit is a credit, equivalent to one tonne of carbon dioxide emitted which an airline would purchase to compensate for the carbon dioxide emission generated by its fleet of aircraft.
CORSIA complements the other elements of the basket of measures by offsetting the amount of CO2 emissions that cannot be reduced through the use of technological improvements, operational improvements, and sustainable aviation fuels with emissions units from the carbon market.
In 2016, countries adopted CORSIA to stabilize net CO2 emissions from international aviation from 2021. CORSIA has been applied to international aviation since 1 January 2019 when all airlines were required to report their CO2 emissions on an annual basis. From 1 January 2021, international flights have become subject to offsetting obligations. Offsetting is not intended to replace efforts to reduce the sector’s carbon emissions through technology, operational and infrastructure advances.