[Federal Register Volume 87, Number 234 (Wednesday, December 7, 2022)]
[Notices]
[Pages 75118-75119]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2022-26547]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Aviation Administration

[Docket No. FAA-2022-0193]


Agency Information Collection Activities: Requests for Comments; 
Clearance of New Approval of Information Collection: ICAO CO2 
Certification Database

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 initial Federal Register Notice with a 60-day comment period 
soliciting comments on the following collection of information was 
published on April 26, 2022. The collection involves the possibility 
for airplane manufacturers, for which a newly built airplane is subject 
to the applicability of Annex 16, Volume III of the Convention on Civil 
Aviation (hereinafter the ``Chicago Convention''), to submit an 
electronic datasheet to the FAA for posting to the CO2 
Certification Database (CO2DB). The information to be 
collected will be necessary because of FAA's commitment to help (a) 
provide publicly available data on the CO2 Metric Value (MV) 
which represents a measure of fuel burn performance of airplane types 
against CO2 technology/design standards, (b) track and 
communicate the improvement in airplane CO2 MVs over time 
and (c) provide an incentive to improve the CO2 MV of 
airplane types.

DATES: Written comments should be submitted by January 6, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Written comments and recommendations for the proposed 
information collection should be sent within 30 days of publication of 
this notice to www.reginfo.gov/public/do/PRAMain. Find this particular 
information collection by selecting ``Currently under 30-day Review--
Open for Public Comments'' or by using the search function.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Laszlo Windhoffer by email at: 
[email protected]; phone: 202-267-4741.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 
    Supporting Statement A
    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.
    OMB Control Number: 2120-XXXX.
    Title: ICAO CO2 Certification Database 
(CO2DB).
    Form Numbers: FAA Form 1240-6.
    Type of Review: Clearance of a new information collection.
    Background: The initial Federal Register Notice with a 60-day 
comment period soliciting comments on the following collection of 
information was published on April 26, 2022 (87 FR 24606).
    In March 2017, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) 
Council adopted the Volume III of Annex 16 of the Chicago Convention 
(Environmental Protection) for the implementation of a new airplane 
CO2 emissions standard. The Standard will apply to new 
airplane type designs from 2020, and to airplane type designs already 
in-production as of 2023. Those in-production airplane which by 2028 do 
not meet the standard will no longer be able to be produced unless 
their designs are sufficiently modified to comply with the in-
production standard.
    To support the implementation of Annex 16 Volume III, ICAO agreed 
that, similar to noise and engine emissions, an ICAO CO2 
Certification Database (CO2DB) should be developed and 
continuously maintained in a publicly accessible manner. The U.S. 
Federal Aviation Administration will host the new database on behalf of 
ICAO.
    The aim of the CO2DB is to (a) Provide publicly 
available data on the CO2 Metric Value (MV) which represents 
a measure of fuel burn performance of airplane types against 
CO2 technology/design standards, (b) Track and communicate 
the improvement in airplane CO2 MVs over time and (c) 
Provide an incentive to improve the CO2 MV of airplane 
types.
    The collection of data towards the CO2DB is expected to 
leverage the Airplane Airworthiness Certification process, which 
includes; airplane performance measurement, computation of relevant 
metrics (e.g., CO2 MV) and submission of the information to 
the Certificating Authority (CA) of the State of Design. As part of the 
airworthiness certification process, the data/information is reviewed 
by the CA and approved. Given that the submission of information into 
the CO2DB is voluntary, it is expected that the applicant 
(e.g., airplane manufacturer) will decide to submit a CO2DB 
Datasheet to its CA and ultimately to the U.S. FAA. If the applicant 
decides to submit information to the CO2DB, the applicant 
will prepare a CO2DB Datasheet by using the CO2DB 
Datasheet Template that will be publicly available via the CO2DB web 
page expected to be hosted on the FAA Office of Environment and Energy 
website. Once the U.S. FAA collects the CO2DB Datasheets it 
may conduct an information check to identify any gross errors or 
mistakes. Similar to other ICAO environment databases, the entity 
submitting the information (in this case the applicant) will be solely 
responsible for the accuracy of the information. If there are any 
questions about submissions, the U.S. FAA will communicate with the 
applicant to attempt to address any issues.
    CO2DB Datasheets will then be integrated into the 
CO2DB and the records of changes will be updated. It is 
expected that the database will be available for download in a common 
table format (e.g., Microsoft Excel file) as well as a collection of 
the submitted CO2DB Datasheets. Additional background and 
supporting information will also be available on the CO2DB 
website along with a Support Function communication mechanism (e.g., 
email address).
    Respondents: Respondents will be airplane manufacturers (or 
``applicants'') subject to the applicability of Annex 16, Volume III of 
the Chicago Convention. From the outset, FAA expects about 3 U.S. 
airplane applicants to submit CO2DB

[[Page 75119]]

Datasheets for their certified airplanes. It should be noted that 
additional respondents from outside the United States (i.e., Airplane 
Manufacturers for which the Certificating Authority is another ICAO 
Member State than the United States) are expected to submit 
CO2DB Datasheets to the CO2DB for their certified 
airplane. These non-US applicants were assumed to be outside the scope 
of the burden analysis contained in Supporting Statement A and were 
therefore not included as respondents.
    Frequency: If they decide to submit information to the 
CO2DB, the manufacturers will submit data after the 
certification of an airplane. It is expected that manufacturers would 
submit one CO2DB Datasheet for each airplane model. As 
described in Supporting Statement A and based on historical frequency 
of airplane certification, each U.S. manufacturer could be expected to 
certificate up to two new models every three years. Thus, in 
mathematical terms, the FAA would expect to receive an average of two 
thirds of one datasheet per year and per respondent.
    Estimated Average Burden per Response: It is expected that filling 
and submitting a CO2DB Datasheet could take approximately 
2.5 hours.
    Estimated Total Annual Burden: Based on the above, FAA expects that 
the annual submission of CO2DB Datasheet by U.S. airplane manufacturers 
could take approximately 5 hours for an average of 2 submissions per 
year ($368 in filing and submission costs). This is estimated for all 3 
U.S. airplane manufacturers.

    Issued in Washington, DC, on December 1, 2022.
Kevin Welsh,
Executive Director, Office of Environment and Energy, Federal Aviation 
Administration.
[FR Doc. 2022-26547 Filed 12-6-22; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-13-P