SINGAPORE, 29 November 2023: The International Air Transport Association says it expects governments to deliver supportive policies needed to enable aviation’s decarbonisation, as agreed at the Third Conference on Aviation Alternative Fuels (CAAF/3) hosted by The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in Dubai.
CAAF/3 takeaways
A global framework to promote Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) production worldwide. The aim is that aviation fuel in 2030 will be 5% less carbon intensive than fossil fuel used today by the industry.
Capacity building, a “Finvest Hub”, and voluntary technology transfer are all measures to ensure that all countries can partake in a global SAF market.
The need for a solution that can foster a global SAF market while enabling airlines to claim the environmental attributes of their SAF purchases against their decarbonisation obligations is based on a global and robust SAF accounting framework.
“Governments have understood the critical role of SAF to achieve net zero emissions for aviation by 2050. The CAAF/3 results add an ambitious vision for the shorter 2030 time horizon. To that end, the CAAF/3 agreement signals to the world, in no uncertain terms, the need for policies that enable real progress. There is no time to lose. IATA now expects governments to urgently put the strongest possible policies in place to unlock the full potential of a global SAF market with an exponential increase in production,” said IATA’s director general Willie Walsh.
This is necessary because airlines’ demand for SAF, in line with their commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, vastly exceeds the availability of SAF today, limited to 0.2% of airlines’ jet fuel consumption in 2023.
“Despite unequivocal demand signals, the SAF production market is not developing fast enough. We need SAF everywhere in the world, and to that end, the right supportive policies – policies that can stimulate production, promote competition, foster innovation, and attract financing – must be put in place today”, said Walsh.
