UK’s aviation regulator to enhance industry environmental reporting

At a glance:

• Aviation regulator has launched a consultation to further develop the UK Aviation Environmental Review (AER).
• The AER highlights the environmental performance of the UK aviation industry and provides recommendations for improvements.
• Feedback will shape an AER roadmap that sets out how the report will continue to grow and adapt to meet the needs of stakeholders and the evolving landscape of environmental sustainability in aviation.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority is improving its tools to help the aviation industry rise to the major challenge of reducing its environmental impact.

In a consultation launched today, new proposals set out improvements to the regulator’s environmental reporting capabilities.

Plans have been put forward to shape the future of the UK Aviation Environmental Review (AER), a comprehensive tool that assesses and provides an objective account of the environmental performance of the UK aviation industry.

The existing AER already plays a crucial role by highlighting and measuring the environmental performance of the aviation sector and providing recommendations for future improvements. This can then be used by Government, industry and other interested stakeholders to inform positive environmental change.

The first of these reports was published in December 2023, marking a milestone in highlighting and measuring the UK aviation sector’s environmental performance.

Harry Armstrong, Head of Sustainability at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, said:

“As the demand for air travel continues to grow, the need for flying to be more sustainable has never been more urgent.

“Our goal is to make the UK a global leader in aviation sustainability by providing robust, transparent data that can inform policy and drive progress.

“This consultation will help improve our ability to measure and report on the sector’s environmental performance, ensuring we are taking the right steps to tackle the environmental impacts of aviation."

The regulator is now seeking input on how to evolve the AER into a more robust tool that not only tracks environmental performance but also monitors the sector’s progress against environmental targets set by industry and government.

The consultation is a key step towards the roadmap that will outline how the AER will evolve. This will ensure it remains a vital tool for improving environmental sustainability within the aviation industry. The consultation covers:

• Our existing reporting approach: to understand whether there are any other relevant areas the UK Civil Aviation Authority should consider including in its environmental analyses – in areas of noise, air quality, and climate change.
• The future presentation of environmental impacts: to understand whether there is value in presenting more granular environmental data — in areas of noise, air quality, and climate change — to enhance understanding of the environmental impacts associated with the industry.
• Any additional reporting topics: to understand whether stakeholders would value seeing any other environmental topics – outside of noise, climate change and air quality - reported in the AER to provide a more comprehensive overview of the aviation industry’s impact.

Notes to editors

• The UK Civil Aviation Authority has a duty to publish an environmental review that gives an objective account of the state of environmental protection relating to civil aviation in the UK. The first of these reports was published in December 2023.
• This duty previously sat with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which prepares the environmental report on behalf of all EU Member States.
• The UK Civil Aviation Authority will analyse the feedback received and develop a roadmap for the evolution of the AER, which is expected to be published in 2025. This roadmap will set out how the report will continue to grow and adapt to meet the needs of stakeholders and the evolving landscape of environmental sustainability in aviation.