provide strong support when participating in the
rulemaking in the International Civil Aviation
Organization, which in turn affects China's discourse
power.
From the perspective of power structure, the talent
reserve gap reflects China's shortcomings in the power
resources to participate in ICAO rulemaking. The lack
of professional talents means that China lacks
effective participation tools in the power structure, and
it is difficult for China to fully exert its influence in the
complex international rulemaking process, and it is
unable to compete with European and American
developed countries in technology and policy level,
which leads to the limitation of discourse power.
Secondly, there is a lack of domestic coordination
mechanism. At the 69th Annual meeting of the
International Air Transport Association (IATA), IATA
proposed the resolution of "Achieving Carbon Neutral
Growth of Aviation (CNG2020) Strategy"
(IATA,2013). At that time, Chinese airlines strongly
opposed the resolution, but due to the lack of domestic
coordination mechanism, lack of communication and
information sharing among airlines, scientific research
institutions and government departments, it was
impossible to form a unified and powerful strategy in
the negotiations. For example, the forecast data of
Chinese scientific research institutions on the future
development trend of China's aviation industry and the
growth of carbon emissions were not provided to
government departments and airlines in time, which
made it impossible to accurately quantify the emission
reduction pressure faced by China's aviation industry
in the negotiations.
In the global governance power structure, the lack of
domestic synergy mechanisms has weakened the
overall competitiveness of China's civil aviation
industry. This internal incoordination makes China
unable to form a unified force, efficiently integrate
resources and formulate strategies in the face of
international affairs such as ICAO rulemaking, thus
being at a disadvantage in the power game, which
further limits the discourse power of CAAC in ICAO.
6 THE PATH TO ENHANCE THE
DISCOURSE POWER OF CAAC
IN ICAO
First, China needs to make technological
breakthroughs and build an independent standard
system. Test flight data in 2023 show that the carbon
emission data of COMAC C919 is in line with
international standards, and its carbon emission per
unit seat is 12%-15% lower than that of similar
models,) proving its energy efficiency advantage (Wu
Guanghui, 2023). China can establish an "Emerging
Countries Aircraft Certification Working Group" with
ICAO to promote the establishment of a diversified
technology evaluation system and break the monopoly
of Europe and the United States on the "carbon
emissions-technical performance" index. Third, China
will set up a special fund for green aviation
technology, focusing on supporting the development
of new high and new technologies such as the SAF,
hydrogen aviation and electric vertical take-off and
landing. At the same time, China has strengthened ties
at home and abroad and attracted international experts
to participate in China's technology research and
development.
Second, we need to strengthen institutional
empowerment and promote multilateral cooperation
and agenda setting. China can refer to the Nationally
Determined Contribution (NDC) mechanism of the
Paris Agreement and promote the adoption of
"differentiated emission reduction pathways" in
ICAO. Secondly, through the Green Development
Alliance of the Belt and Road Initiative, China can
join with countries such as India, which advocates the
principle of historical responsibility, and Brazil, which
emphasizes the fairness of biofuels, to propose a
"dynamic allocation model of carbon emission
reduction responsibility", incorporating indicators
such as "per capita carbon emissions" and "access to
aviation services", and build a "fairness framework for
aviation emission reduction". Thirdly, policy linkage
should be established. The data of CAAC carbon
market should be submitted to ICAO to prove the
credibility of its monitoring, reporting and verification
system.
Finally, we should strengthen the construction of
talents and institutions, and strengthen the original
research on the power of discourse. In the discipline
setting. It is possible to set up a major of "International
Aviation Governance" in civil aviation colleges such
as Civil Aviation University of China and China Civil
Aviation Pilot Students, and systematically learn
relevant courses such as ICAO operation rules,
aviation carbon emission measurement, and
international climate negotiation strategies. And
cooperate with the Geneva Institute of International
Relations to carry out the student exchange program,
and send talents to the ICAO secretariat for internship,
in order to enhance the original research and
international competence of talents in the ICAO
aviation carbon emission discourse. In addition,
special research institutions, such as the "CORSIA
Implementation Support Center", have been set up to