Global airlines could miss sustainable fuel targets: Iata’s chief
THE aviation industry is not moving fast enough to reach its targets for producing and using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), the head of airline trade body Iata Willie Walsh said on Tuesday (Dec 10), as it aims for net zero emissions by 2050.
“We’re not making as much progress as we’d hoped for and we’re certainly not making as much progress as we need,” Walsh said at an Iata media day in Geneva.
As it stands, sustainable aviation fuel makes up only around 0.3 per cent of the world’s jet fuel usage and is projected to only account for 0.7 per cent by 2025, according to Iata data, with experts saying the production rate of the green fuel needs to grow quickly for the sector to achieve its emissions goals.
An Iata study presented on Tuesday showed that global production of green jet fuel in 2024 was only 1 million tonnes, lower than Iata’s projection a year ago that it would be 1.5 million tonnes.
Walsh pointed to a lack of biorefineries under construction which could produce the green jet fuel, many of which require extensive capital expenditure to get built.
He said Europe was lagging behind the US when it came to crafting incentives that could help boost that expenditure.
The 2022 US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) contains hundreds of billions of US dollars in subsidies for clean energy and is billed as outgoing President Joe Biden’s signature law to combat climate change.
Walsh said it was unclear what the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump would do regarding the IRA and how it would impact ongoing SAF production.
“There was quite a lot of progress in the first Trump administration in this area as well. So I don’t think this is a black and white issue,” he told reporters. REUTERS
Share with us your feedback on BT's products and services
