Aviation is one of the hardest-to-abate sectors when it comes to sustainability, as it will be difficult to fully decarbonise. That said, there are multiple promising pathways to lowering industry emissions, with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) being the best near-term solution.

Transparency is key to successful sustainability programmes; aviation is no exception. We urge our customers to start by setting realistic climate targets and reporting the progress toward their goals on an annual basis.

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Without comprehensive and high-quality emissions data, companies spin their wheels, taking costly and ineffective climate action.

Good data builds trust with stakeholders, fulfils compliance requirements like those mandated by the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and, critically, unlocks a path to real impact.

More than SAF

Currently, the aviation sector is nowhere near close to the supply of SAF that will be needed to make a meaningful dent in emissions. As it stands, SAF constitutes less than 0.5 percent of the total jet fuel supply today.

To build this sector, the industry needs more long-term offtake agreements that send a signal of large demand; this in turn sends greater confidence to the market and shows fuel producers that, if they scale production, there will be customers on the other side to purchase their product, and supports fuel producers as they seek financing for more production. 

Decarbonised air travel will be made possible with participation from the private and public sectors: airlines, corporate customers, regulators, and climate tech innovators all have a role to play.

We need sustainability-minded companies to step up now to help build the sector. We should not limit ourselves to a single SAF technology right now: we need to continue supporting the maturation of existing technologies and scale up novel ones.