Soaring sustainably: Promoting the uptake of sustainable aviation fuels during and post-pandemic

Abstract

The aviation industry is a major producer of greenhouse gas emissions, and the current reduction methods of carbon offsets and increasing aircraft efficiency will not be enough to significantly lower emissions by 2050. Considering the prior growth of the aviation industry and to meet the Paris Agreement’s 2-degree Celsius target, aircraft emissions must be reduced rather than simply offset. This Perspective discusses the role of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as a more transformative energy resource to decarbonize airlines. The opportunities and challenges in the development of SAF are reviewed to analyze how governments and airlines can move forward. Although airlines struggle with decreased demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, the airline sector can fuel both sustainable flights and economic recovery if governments can harness this unprecedented time to allocate stimulus funds to support SAF. Promoting SAF uptake during this challenging time requires robust, multi-stakeholder partnerships between governments, airlines, airports, fuel producers, and investors. This Perspective overviews several potential measures to promote SAF including policy and regulations, financing contracts, research and development, business-to-business incentives, and business-to-consumer incentives.