Russia Moves to Build CORSIA Coordination Center and SAF Assessment Platform Ahead of 2027 Standard

Russia is assembling the institutional infrastructure needed to comply with the international CORSIA carbon offsetting standard, which takes effect for covered operators in 2027. Two initiatives were presented at the RuCORS forum in St. Petersburg.

The Ministry of Transport is establishing a coordination center under the ministry's Scientific Center that will maintain a registry of companies subject to CORSIA, verify emissions reports using Rosaviatsia data, and calculate compensation volumes, while also seeking international recognition for Russia's carbon unit registry at ICAO. Deputy Transport Minister Vladimir Poteshkin warned that if airlines delay submitting data, ICAO will calculate their emissions independently, resulting in higher compensation obligations. CORSIA applies to operators whose annual emissions exceed 10,000 tonnes of CO₂ and whose aircraft have a certified takeoff mass of 5,700 tonnes or more. Veronika Khodyreva, head of the civil aviation department, said the goal is a coherent framework covering monitoring, verification, reporting, carbon unit handling and emission reduction tools, noting Russia already runs a voluntary emissions reduction mechanism and a carbon unit registry.

Separately, Gazprom Neft proposed an open SAF assessment platform accessible to all market participants, tracking emissions reductions across the fuel's full life cycle from field to aircraft tank, since ICAO-required sustainability certification for SAF is currently available only at foreign centers. Gazprom Neft's head of commercial operations, Levan Kadagidze, said the company was the first in Russia to produce marine fuel from plant-based feedstock and has since developed the formulation further. Officials framed CORSIA compliance as a test of coordination between the state setting recognized rules, airlines building monitoring processes, and researchers supplying methodologies.