Aviation regulator DGCA would set up an environment task force to monitor and check carbon emissions by aircraft operating in the country and ask all Indian carriers to set up similar cells of their own.
The decision of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) comes at a time when the UN-body International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is working on global market-based measures to check aviation emissions.
India, along with Russia, China, the US and several other nations, has been strongly opposing European Union's Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS) on the grounds that it unilaterally imposes hefty taxes on all air operations across the European skies, violating international rules. The countries want the ICAO to evolve global rules on the issue.
In a latest circular, DGCA has decided to establish an Aviation Climate Change Task Force with stakeholders to assess trends in carbon emissions, facilitate data collection and analysis and formulate new initiatives to curb emissions in the skies and on the ground (at airports).
It has also asked all scheduled airlines and airport operators, with more than 50,000 movements per year, to set up Aviation Environment Cells within their organisations, headed by a person having knowledge of aviation environment matters.
The decision would make all airlines set up cells to keep tab on their carbon emissions and take voluntary measures to reduce them, thereby making the carriers accountable on the issue, official sources said.
It would become mandatory for these carriers to furnish these data on fuel consumption by their aircraft and emissions on a regular basis to the DGCA, they said.
