During the 80th annual general meeting held in Dubai, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced on Sunday that projections for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) production indicate a significant surge by 2024. The anticipated tripling of SAF production to 1.9 billion litres (1.5 million tonnes) is expected to align with the aviation industry's efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
While this increase is promising, IATA emphasized that SAF usage by airlines would still only constitute approximately 0.53 percent of the aviation sector's fuel requirement in 2024. Despite the growth, SAF production remains in its nascent stages, with only 25 million litres produced in 2019.
According to Willie Walsh, Director General of IATA, SAF is projected to contribute approximately 65 percent of the mitigation required for airlines to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The remainder of the emissions reduction would be achieved through advancements in technology, operational optimizations, and carbon offsets.
While SAF is recognized as a critical tool for decarbonizing the aviation industry, its widespread adoption faces challenges such as cost and technological limitations. Addressing these challenges will necessitate a significant increase in production capacity to meet the projected demand, which IATA estimates to reach 450 billion litres per year by the middle of the century.
Walsh highlighted the growing interest in SAF and emphasized the importance of government policies to facilitate its procurement by airlines. Notably, Europe has already embraced the incorporation of SAF in airline operations, while in the United States, production is supported by subsidies under President Joe Biden's 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
