[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 243 (Wednesday, December 18, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 69448-69449]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-27232]



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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration


Agency Information Collection Activities: Requests for Comments; 
Clearance of 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 intention to request the Office of 
Management and Budget (OMB) approval for a new information collection. 
The Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period soliciting 
comments on the following collection of information was published on 
April 30, 2019. FAA received two comments to this notice. 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 January 17, 2020.

ADDRESSES: Interested persons are invited to submit written comments on 
the proposed information collection to the Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget. Comments should be 
addressed to the attention of the Desk Officer, Department of 
Transportation/FAA, and sent via electronic mail to 
[email protected], or faxed to (202) 395-6974, or mailed to 
the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management 
and Budget, Docket Library, Room 10102, 725 17th St. NW, Washington, DC 
20503.
    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.

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

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    OMB Control Number: 2120-XXXX.
    Title: Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International 
Aviation (CORSIA) Monitoring, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) 
Program.
    Form Numbers: Not applicable.
    Type of Review: Clearance of a new information collection.
    Background: The Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment 
period soliciting comments on the following collection of information 
was published on April 30, 2019 (84 FR 18,334). FAA received two 
comments in response to this notice.
    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:

--For an EMP (one-time submission), FAA expects that filling and 
submitting an EMP could on average take approximately 22.5 hours.
--For an ER (annual submission), FAA expects that the reporting burden 
could be approximately 60 and 17.5 hours per operator for operators 
using

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a Fuel Use Monitoring Method and operators using a simplified 
Monitoring Method respectively.

    Estimated Total Annual Burden: Based on the above, FAA expects that 
the annual submission of an EMP and ER could take approximately 33.5 to 
107.5 hours for each of the 11 to 49 operators.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on December 12, 2019.
Rebecca Cointin,
Director (Acting), Office of Environment and Energy.
[FR Doc. 2019-27232 Filed 12-17-19; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 4910-13-P