Cost-benefit analysis of using sustainable aviation fuels in South America

Abstract

The sustained growth of global aviation emissions has highlighted the urgent need for using Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs) to replace traditional aviation fuels to mitigate emissions. SAFs can potentially reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50%–90% compared to conventional jet fuels. This paper collected aviation emissions data from South American routes between 2019 and 2021, and the GWP100 method was used to convert CH4 and N2O emissions into CO2 equivalents. Additionally, emissions from the South American route between 2023 and 2070 were predicted, as well as the amount of subsidy required to promote the use of SAFs under four different scenarios. The result shows that adopting SAFs could reduce approximately 69.3 million to 113.53 million tons of CO2-equivalent emissions in South America by 2070. However, the South American aviation industry will likely embrace using SAFs only if the carbon trading price exceeds 0.273 times the difference between SAFs and jet fuel prices.