[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 83 (Tuesday, April 30, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18333-18334]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-08684]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Requests for Comments; 
Clearance of a New Approval of Information Collection: Carbon 
Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) 
Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) Program

AGENCY: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), DOT.

ACTION: Notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, FAA 
invites public comments about our

[[Page 18334]]

intention to request the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approval 
for a new information collection. The collection involves a request 
that airplane operators subject to the applicability of Annex 16, 
Volume IV of the Convention on Civil Aviation (hereinafter the 
``Chicago Convention'') submit electronically an Emissions Monitoring 
Plan (EMP) and an annual Emissions Report (ER) to the FAA. The 
information to be collected is necessary because FAA will use the 
information to fulfill the United States' responsibilities under the 
Chicago Convention.

DATES: Written comments should be submitted by July 1, 2019.

ADDRESSES: Please send written comments:
    By Electronic Docket: www.regulations.gov (Enter docket number into 
search field).
    By mail: Daniel Williams, Federal Aviation Administration, AEE-400, 
800 Independence Ave. SW, Washington, DC 20591.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Daniel Williams by email at: 
[email protected]; phone: 202-267-7988.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Public Comments Invited: You are asked to comment on any aspect of 
this information collection, including (a) Whether the proposed 
collection of information is necessary for FAA's performance; (b) the 
accuracy of the estimated burden; (c) ways for FAA to enhance the 
quality, utility and clarity of the information collection; and (d) 
ways that the burden could be minimized without reducing the quality of 
the collected information. The agency will summarize and/or include 
your comments in the request for OMB's clearance of this information 
collection.
    OMB Control Number: 2120-XXXX.
    Title: CORSIA Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) 
Program.
    Form Numbers: Not Applicable.
    Type of Review: Clearance of a new information collection.
    Background: The CORSIA MRV Program is a voluntary program for 
certain U.S. air carriers and commercial operators (collectively 
referred hereinafter as ``operators'') to submit certain airplane 
CO2 emissions data to the FAA to enable the United States to 
establish uniformity with ICAO Standards And Recommended Practices 
(SARPs) for CORSIA, which were adopted in June 2018, as Annex 16, 
Volume IV to the Chicago Convention. The United States supported the 
decision to adopt the CORSIA SARPs based on the understanding that 
CORSIA is the exclusive market-based measure applying to international 
aviation, and that CORSIA will ensure fair and reciprocal commercial 
competition by avoiding a patchwork of country- or regionally-based 
regulatory measures that are inconsistently applied, bureaucratically 
costly, and economically damaging. Furthermore, continued U.S. support 
for CORSIA assumes a high level of participation by other countries, 
particularly by countries with significant aviation activity, as well 
as a final CORSIA package that is acceptable to, and implementable by, 
the United States.
    Under CORSIA, all ICAO Member States whose airplane operators 
undertake international flights will need to develop a MRV system for 
CO2 emissions from those international flights starting 
January 1, 2019. The FAA's CORSIA MRV Program is intended to be the 
United States' MRV system for monitoring, reporting, and verification 
of U.S. airplane operator CO2 emissions from international 
flights.
    Operators that are subject to the applicability of CORSIA will 
submit their EMPs and ERs electronically.\1\ Both documents use 
Microsoft Excel-based templates and can be transmitted via email or 
uploaded to a web portal. EMPs that are submitted by operators will be 
used as a collaborative tool between the operator and FAA to document a 
given operator's chosen fuel use monitoring procedures. FAA will retain 
a copy of the EMP and will share with ICAO a list of operators that 
submit EMPs. FAA will not submit any specific EMPs from U.S. operators 
to ICAO. Large operators, i.e., those emitting 500,000 metric tons or 
more of CO2 per year, will gather data through a ``fuel use 
monitoring method.'' Small operators, i.e., those emitting less than 
500,000 metric tons of CO2 per year, can use a simplified 
monitoring method. Annual ERs that are submitted to FAA by operators 
and verifiers will be used to document each operators' international 
emissions. FAA will use the ERs to calculate aggregated emissions data 
for all U.S. operators. FAA will submit the aggregated emissions data 
to ICAO to demonstrate U.S. implementation of CORSIA.
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    \1\ CORSIA applies to airplane operators that produce annual 
CO2 emissions greater than 10,000 tonnes (i.e., 10,000 
metric tons) from international flights, excluding emissions from 
excluded flights. The following activities are excluded CORSIA:
    --Domestic flights;
    --Humanitarian, medical, and firefighting operations, including 
flight(s) preceding or following a humanitarian, medical, or 
firefighting flight provided such flight(s) were conducted with the 
same airplane, were required to accomplish the related humanitarian, 
medical, or firefighting activities or to reposition thereafter the 
airplane for its next activity;
    --Operations using an airplane with a maximum certificated take-
off mass equal to or less than 5,700 kg;
    --Operations on behalf of the military.
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    Respondents: Respondents will be airplane operators subject to the 
applicability of Annex 16, Volume IV of the Chicago Convention. From 
the outset, FAA expects between 11 and 49 operators to submit an EMP 
and ER. Some additional operators could submit an EMP and ER over time 
based on their international aviation activities.
    Frequency: An EMP is a one-time submission. An ER is an annual 
submission.
    Estimated Average Burden per Response: FAA expects that filling and 
submitting an EMP could take approximately 8 hours. FAA expects that 
for operators using a Fuel Use Monitoring Method, the reporting hour 
burden could be approximately 43 hours per operator, per year. For 
operators using a simplified Monitoring Method, the reporting hour 
burden could be approximately 29 hours per operator, per year.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: Based on the above, FAA expects that 
the annual submission of an ER could take approximately 29 to 43 hours 
for each of the 11 to 49 operators.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on April 24, 2019.
Kevin Welsh,
Executive Director, Office of Environment and Energy.
[FR Doc. 2019-08684 Filed 4-29-19; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-P