Sustainable aviation fuels: powering aviation to net zero

There is currently no zero emissions technology. As a result, we all need to fly less, was the observation of Cait Hewitt, policy director at Aviation Environment Federation, speaking at the CAPA Airline Leader Summit - 'Airlines in Transition 2022' in Apr-2022.

This view is not uncommon, even though aviation was the first industry with a global decarbonisation strategy. The industry adopted a target to halve emissions by 2050 back in 2009. Its leading participants are now more ambitious, aiming for net zero by 2050.

Aviation has long had four pillars in its decarbonisation strategy: new technology, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), operations/infrastructure and economic measures. This is an 'eggs in many baskets' approach, but SAF must make the biggest contribution to the 2050 net zero goal.

SAFs are not created equal - the performance varies. Both carrot and stick - incentives and regulation - are needed to ramp up SAF production, but the first 10% will be the hardest and riskiest.

Meanwhile, global governments must back aviation industry participants by adopting the 2050 net zero target at the ICAO General Assembly in Sep-2022.