ICAO will create a web document to help advance efforts to develop and commercialize alternative jet fuels.
The so-called Global Framework on Aviation and Alternative Fuels (GFAAF) web-based tool will enable member states and the aviation industry to share information, best practices and future initiatives aimed at developing and implementing the use of alternative aviation fuels.
The web tool is expected be online in the coming weeks, an ICAO spokesman says.
GFAAF was adopted during ICAO's conference on aviation and alternative fuels in Rio de Janeiro earlier this week, and the conference also endorsed the use of sustainable, drop-in alternative jet fuels with a rollout goal between 2012 and 2020.
In addition to the forthcoming web tool, conference attendees recommended that ICAO organize a meeting to consider the cost and financing of infrastructure projects dedicated to aviation alternative fuels as well as incentives to overcome initial market hurdles. The meeting will be open to ICAO member states, financial institutions, fuel producers, feedstock producers, aircraft manufacturers and airlines.
No date has been set for the meeting yet, the ICAO spokesman says.
ICAO will present the GFAAF and its recommendations for addressing the aviation industry's contribution to climate change to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen next month.
The UNFCCC is tasked with establishing general greenhouse gas emissions targets that will take effect after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
Separately, ICAO has reached an agreement with distribution firm Amadeus for ICAO to supply data from its carbon emissions calculator to Amadeus to allow Amadeus' users to estimate the carbon footprint of their air travel.
Amadeus will integrate the data into its reservation platforms by mid 2010.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
