Kingston, Jamaica.- The Dominican Institute of Civil Aviation Idac, represented by a delegation from the Sustainable Development Directorate, participated in the Third Regional Seminar for the Caribbean of the Carbon Reduction and Elimination Scheme for International Civil Aviation, Corsia, in which progress was evaluated in the multidisciplinary agenda drawn up by the countries and organizations involved.
Miguel Mejía, director of Sustainable Development at Idac, reported that during the seminar, the opportunities, challenges and actions of state authorities, aircraft operators, national accreditation bodies and verification bodies, which have responsibility for environmental management through air operations, were discussed.
He explained that the main objective of the meeting was to bring together the delegations of the 14 partner States of the Caribbean project and discuss the most important components of Corsia, to share experiences and challenges, improve synergies and cooperation between nations in the area of sustainable civil aviation.
Mejia explained that the Dominican Republic maintains a firm commitment to advance research efforts and inter-institutional coordination to reduce the carbon footprint in the aeronautical sector.
During the seminar, which took place in the capital of Jamaica from the 12th to the 14th of this month, topics such as “The process of calculating compensation for aircraft operators assigned to specific States” and “The interaction that needs to be created with national stakeholders, mainly with the Ministry of the Environment, to begin the process of requesting Corsia eligible emissions units” were discussed.
In addition, “The potential and advantages of creating accredited verification bodies also for the Corsia sub-scope, highlighting the importance of a regional approach” was among the panels of the aforementioned international conclave.
The Dominican delegation was supported by the general director of Idac, Héctor Porcella, and the executive director of the Dominican Accreditation Body, Odac, Ángel David Taveras Difó, and was made up of the director of Sustainable Development and deputy director of Idac, Miguel Mejía; Judit de León, as focal point for Ssf’s; Luis Ramírez, focal point for Corsia and Gregory Ramírez, Monitoring, Verification and Reporting (MRV) officer.
The IDAC delegates were accompanied by representatives of the airline Helidosa Group, Juan Manuel Polanco and Yohanna Ceballos; Christopher Barks, Regional director for North America, Central America and the Caribbean Nacc and Luis Sánchez, Regional Specialist in Aeronautical Meteorology and the Environment, also participated as observers. The Dominican representation, headed by Idac, was supported in virtual mode by the head of the Accreditation Department, Certification Bodies of Systems, Products and People of Odac, Pedro Ferrer, who made a presentation on the experience in the accreditation process of the first verification body in the Caribbean region for Corsia and the importance of the inter-institutional agreement between IDAC and Odac.
The regional seminar was held under the framework of the Eu-Corsia project and sponsored by the European Union Agency for Aviation Safety Easa, and had the special participation of Colonel Oscar Derby, President of the Civil Aviation Authority of Jamaica; Christopher Barks, Regional director for North America, Central America and the Caribbean Nacc, and Eleonora Italia, International Cooperation Officer for America and Africa of the Easa Directorate of Strategy and Safety Management.
The 14 Easa member states in the region are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago and Suriname.
