INTERNATIONAL LEGAL REGULATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY IN CIVIL AVIATION IN THE CONTEXT OF SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The rapid growth of international civil aviation in the context of globalization is accompanied by a corresponding increase in its negative impact on the natural environment and the planet’s climate system. The distinctive feature of air transport lies in its cross-border nature, as the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions and noise pollution occurs in international airspace or over the territories of various countries during transit flights. This makes it impossible to effectively address the industry’s environmental challenges solely through the tools of national jurisdictions and brings the issue of ensuring environmental safety directly into the realm of international law. The current international legal paradigm requires the aviation industry to undergo substantial decarbonization and integrate the principles of sustainable development. Consequently, researching the effectiveness of existing international legal regulations on environmental safety in aviation and seeking ways to resolve existing jurisdictional conflicts are extremely pressing tasks for contemporary legal scholarship. The purpose of this study is to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the current state and future prospects of international legal regulation of environmental safety in civil aviation, to identify existing legal gaps, and to develop well-founded proposals for improving international mechanisms to minimize the negative impact of air transport on the natural environment. The research materials include: 1) international legal instruments governing environmental safety issues in civil aviation; 2) works by domestic and foreign scholars in the fields of public international law, international environmental law, and aviation law that address the issue of ensuring environmental safety in civil aviation. The following methods were applied in the course of the study: the dialectical method – to examine the evolution of environmental standards in the aviation sector; the comparative legal method – to analyze and compare international norms (in particular, ICAO standards) with contemporary environmental challenges; the formal-legal method – to interpret the provisions of international conventions and legal acts regulating aviation’s impact on the climate; and the analytical method – to assess the effectiveness of global market mechanisms (such as CORSIA) within the framework of international aviation law. Results and discussion. It has been demonstrated that the current international legal framework for aviation environmental safety requires a systematic overhaul and a shift from recommended standards to stricter, mandatory regulations governing greenhouse gas emissions and noise pollution. It has been determined that the effectiveness of existing programs (in particular regarding the achievement of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050) is diminished due to their predominantly voluntary nature in the initial stages. The need for deeper implementation of international environmental directives into national legislation has been substantiated. It has been established that the issue of ensuring aviation environmental safety has a distinctly transboundary nature, and therefore, its resolution is impossible without the consolidation of efforts by the international community. Future research should focus on resolving jurisdictional conflicts between global and regional environmental control systems, as well as on establishing an effective international legal mechanism to hold aviation operators accountable for non-compliance with environmental quotas and standards.