The International Air Transport Association (IATA) – the global representative body for the airline industry – has highlighted the latest developments concerning the production and roll-out of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), in its new 'Fly Net Zero Media Update'. This covers developments announced last month.

In this latest Update, IATA highlighted that the European Union (EU) had agreed to cut aviation carbon emissions by expanding the use of SAF. This agreement sets a series of mandates for the use of SAF over the coming years. EU airports will have to supply aviation fuel blends with a minimum 2% SAF content by 2025, rising to 6% SAF by 2030, then to 20% by 2035 and reaching a maximum of 70% by 2050. Further, by 2030, 1.2% of the SAF used must be produced by Power-to-Liquids technologies (these SAFs being known as eSAF or e-Fuels), a proportion that has to increase to 5% in 2035 and to 35% by 2050.

IATA also noted that the EU had urged its member States to comply with the EU mandate and not create their own national SAF mandates, which would complicate the adoption of these fuels.

However, Spain-based energy and petrochemicals group Repsol international aviation director Oliver Fernández Garcia warned that the EU had to reform its own regulatory system in order to effectively promote the use of SAF. “[I]n the [EU] a complex system of rules and regulations has been built up that does not facilitate rapid progress in the energy transition,” he told IATA. “In many cases, regulations overlap each other and are often accompanied by restrictions and even prohibitions of technologies and solutions that could help us reduce emissions faster. We, therefore, think, [that] the European authorities should look even more to the United States that has a much simpler system where support is provided in the form of tax breaks or incentives available to all those interested in investing in decarbonisation solutions.”

At the company level, April saw a string of significant deals, agreements and memoranda of understanding to expand the production and use of SAF. These activities embraced Asia, the Americas and Europe. The airlines involved in these activities were Air Canada, All Nippon Airways, Cathay Pacific, Delta Air Lines, Norwegian, Ryanair, United Airlines, Viva Aerobus and Wizz Air. Manufacturers participating were Airbus Canada, Honeywell, and Pratt & Whitney Canada. SAF producers involved included Cap Clean Energy, Cepsa, ITOCHU Corporation, Neste, Norsk e-Fuel, Oriental Energy, Repsol, Shell Aviation, and (China’s) State Power Investment Corporation. Geographically, these agreements covered Canada, China, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the US.