The International Air Transport Association (IATA) urged governments to extend incentives to expand the use of sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) toward achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the 78th IATA Annual General Meeting in Doha.
To fulfill aviation’s net-zero commitment, current estimates are for SAF to account for 65% of aviation’s carbon mitigation in 2050, requiring an annual production capacity of 449 billion liters. Investments are in place to expand SAF’s annual production from the current 125 million liters to 5 billion by 2025 and to 30 billion liters by 2030 through effective government incentives.
“Governments don’t need to invent a playbook. Incentives to transition electricity production to renewable sources like solar or wind worked. As a result, clean energy solutions are now cheap and widely available. With similar incentives for SAF, we could see 30 billion liters available by 2030. Though still far from where we need to be, it would be a clear tipping point towards our net-zero ambition of ample SAF quantities at affordable prices,” Willie Walsh, Director General, IATA, said.
In 2021, irrespective of price (SAF is between two and four times the price of conventional jet fuel), airlines have purchased every drop of the 125 million liters of SAF that was available. Already more than 38 countries have SAF-specific policies that clear the way for the market to develop. Taking their cue from these policy measures, airlines have entered into $17 billion of forward-purchasing agreements for SAF.
