ANAC establishes Environmental Action Policy

The National Civil Aviation Agency’s (ANAC) Environmental Action Policy was instituted on April 3. The rule was published in the Official Gazette of the Union (DOU), on March 29, through Normative Instruction (IN) No. 188 (available only in Portuguese), which also established the Agency’s Environmental Committee and the Aviation Environmental Network. The measures represent an important milestone for the agency and its commitment to guide the aviation sector towards sustainable development, with respect for the environment.

The Environmental Action Policy seeks to mitigate the impact of civil aviation on the environment, notably regarding the decarbonization of the sector, the reduction of pollutant emissions and noise from aircraft and their operations, the sustainable use of airport infrastructure and encouraging the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), based on the tripod of guidelines, governance, and knowledge management.

As guidelines, the policy states that ANAC should consider in its regulations the impacts of civil aviation on the environment and encourage the regulated companies to voluntarily adopt sustainability and environmental management practices and initiatives that promote the reduction of the environmental impact of their activities. The standard also states that efforts to mitigate the environmental impact of civil aviation will be guided by an Environmental Action Plan for the Agency, which will list environmental initiatives and objectives in line with the commitments made within the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

As a governance instance, the policy also establishes the ANAC’s Environmental Committee and the Aviation Environmental Network. The committee is formed by the heads of all the Agency’s superintendencies and is responsible for preparing ANAC’s Environmental Action Plan, for providing technical support to the Agency’s institutional representation before the Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP), and for meeting the commitments made to ICAO. Thematic technical groups composed by employees from the units linked to the committee may be created to technically support the work to be carried out.

About the Aviation Environmental Network, it is a consultative forum open to the participation of representatives from the public and private sectors and civil society, with the purpose of presenting studies, sharing data, and proposing initiatives aimed at promoting environmental sustainability in Brazilian civil aviation. The expectation with this instance of social participation is the engagement of the sector and of the whole society towards a greener aviation, socially responsible and in line with the international consensus established on environmental issues.

Finally, the policy also provides mechanisms for the promotion and retention of knowledge on environmental issues, such as the formalization of agreements, technical cooperation agreements and the like with agencies and entities of notorious knowledge, the holding of periodic contests to reward studies on the impacts of civil aviation on the environment, and the honorary recognition of the figure of the Environmental Collaborator.

With the establishment of these guidelines, ANAC advances in the maturing of its environmental policies, in line with the importance of the topic in global discussions on the socio-economic level.