Corporate members of the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA) have committed to purchasing sustainable aviation fuel certificates (SAFc) for nearly 50 million gallons of SAF, with an investment value of close to $200 million. The multi-year collection of deals, which involves 20 corporate customers, four fuel providers and three airlines, has the potential to reduce around 500,000 tons of CO2e. Purchasing SAF certificates enables corporate travellers to invest in SAF and capture the environmental benefits, allowing them to make GHG emissions reduction claims on their climate disclosures, while the physical SAF flows to an aircraft operator. SABA is working with airline partners Alaska, JetBlue and Southwest, securing certificates through SkyNRG and purchasing directly from fuel providers including World Energy.

“Creating an ecosystem that equips companies from all economic sectors to access more SAF is part of our mission,” said Adam Klauber, VP Sustainability and Digital Supply Chain at World Energy, the world’s first commercial-scale SAF producer. “We are proud to collaborate to help Scope 3 customers achieve their net zero goals and dramatically increase SAF production with these long-term contracts.”

SABA said multi-year deals were essential in driving scale in the SAF market as long-term certainty about demand helped fuel producers secure financing for their projects and so bring more SAF to market.

“SABA plays a critical role in helping companies identify and purchase the highest-integrity sustainable aviation fuels to accelerate progress towards net zero goals,” said Elizabeth Sturcken, Managing Director at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), which co-founded the alliance.

Different fuel types are being purchased through the set of agreements, including power-to-liquids, or e-fuels, produced from renewable electricity and CO2 by startup Twelve, and offered in partnership with Alaska.

As global demand for aviation and SAF grows, partners like SABA will be increasingly crucial to bring the full range of aviation stakeholders to the table,” said Nicholas Flanders, co-founder and CEO of Twelve. “Innovative power-to-liquid fuels will deliver deeper emissions reductions but need the support of airlines and corporations in order to scale. We’re proud to join with SABA and its collective of forward-minded corporate customers, airlines and fellow fuel providers to deliver E-Jet fuel and help pioneer the market for high-integrity SAF certificates.”

The new RFP multi-year purchase follows a pilot SAFc procurement for nearly 850,000 gallons of SAF last year. By expanding the process to include multiple fuel providers and airlines, customers are able to invest in a range of fuel types and help bring new technologies to market, said SABA.

“As we continue to optimise our business travel emissions, we recognise the crucial role that lower carbon air travel plays in meeting global climate targets,” commented David Webb, Chief Sustainability Officer of BCG, a SABA member. “The SAF industry is rapidly evolving and we are enthusiastic about its potential to scale and support a more sustainable, global economy.”

EDF and SABA’s other co-founder, RMI, have developed the digital SAFc Registry that was launched during COP28 in Dubai last December, which is being used as the central platform to record the certificates purchased through the RFP. Building on industry best practices, the registry creates an auditable ledger to ensure the certificates realise their intended environmental impact and can be claimed towards emissions reduction goals.

“The SAFc Registry plays a critical role in the SAF ecosystem by bringing greater consistency and transparency to SAFc transactions, building trust along the SAF value chain and helping send a strong demand signal for the low-carbon fuels needed to decarbonise the aviation sector,” said Bryan Fisher, Managing Director at clean energy non-profit RMI.

Plans for a new collective procurement process are underway, although SABA cautioned available SAF volumes that met its requirements “came nowhere close” to meeting the full demand from its customers in 2024 and 2025.

“The only way to drive structural change in hard-to-abate sectors like aviation is to shake up existing business models,” said Kim Carnahan, Head of SABA’s Secretariat and CEO of Neoteric Energy and Climate. “The recent announcement from the Science Based Targets initiative opening the door to the use of market-based approaches to address Scope 3 emissions only elevates the importance of SABA’s book-and-claim system as an innovative and environmentally robust avenue for customers to drive aviation decarbonisation.”

SABA is hosting a webinar on May 1 that will discuss the latest multi-year RFP SAFc procurement. Details here

Photo: Alaska Airlines

Christopher Surgenor

Editor

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A study led by Google Research and Breakthrough Energy, together with support from American Airlines, has found that by using artificial intelligence (AI) based predictions to make small modifications to routes that were projected to create contrails, their formation could be reduced by 54%, although avoidance burned 2% additional fuel. Other recent studies have shown that only a small percentage of flights need to be adjusted to avoid the majority of contrail warming. Therefore, say the researchers, the total fuel impact could be as low as 0.3% across an airline’s flights, suggesting contrails could be avoided at scale for around $5-25/ton CO2e using the predictions, making it a cost-effective warming reduction measure that could be improved still further with enhancements. A small group of American pilots flew 70 test flights over six months, after which Google Research analysed satellite imagery.

Cirrus clouds created by aircraft contrails are said to account for around 35% of aviation’s global warming impact During the day, the clouds reflect back incoming sunlight and warmth but nighttime contrails trap heat and a net warming effect takes place. However, contrails only form in ice-supersaturated air below a critical temperature threshold, within areas tending to be tens to hundreds of kilometres in the horizontal and only a few hundred metres in the vertical extent.

“The challenge is knowing where these regions will occur,” said researchers from Google. “By combining massive quantities of weather data, satellite data and flight data, AI can create state-of-the-art predictions of when and where contrails are likely to be formed. Pilots and dispatchers can then use this information to adjust the altitudes of their flights.”

The research team developed an approach to leverage and analyse satellite imagery, and spent hundreds of hours labelling tens of thousands of contrail images collected by the geostationary satellite, GOES-16. Labelled data was used to train a computer vision model to detect contrails when they are formed. The detection model can identify contrails that are visible within GOES imagery in a matter of 30 minutes, say the researchers, who then combined the computer vision model with large-scale weather data, flight data and satellite images to develop a more accurate prediction model.

The contrail-likely zone predictions were integrated into the tablets American’s pilots used in flight, so they could make real-time adjustments in altitude to avoid creating contrails, just as they would do to avoid turbulence. The prediction model’s performance was then evaluated using satellite imagery to compare the number of contrails produced in flights where pilots used the predictions against where they were not.

“We now have the first proof point that commercial flights can use these predictions to avoid contrails, as verified in satellite imagery,” said Juliet Rothenberg, Head of Product for Climate AI at Google Research. “We’re grateful for our partnership with American Airlines and Breakthrough Energy – together we’ve taken a significant step towards understanding a high-potential climate solution.”

Google Research said it planned to extend its models to geostationary satellites over Europe, Africa, the Indian Ocean, East Asia and Western Australia.

“The results from this small-scale test are encouraging and, while there are more questions to answer about how to operationalise contrails avoidance across our industry, we’re excited to have played a role in establishing their first proof point,” said Jill Blickstein, VP Sustainability at American. “And we’re looking forward to sharing what we learned with stakeholders in the aviation industry and beyond.”          

Added Marc Shapiro, Director of Breakthrough Energy Contrails: “Avoiding contrails might be one of the best ways to limit aviation’s climate impact, and now we have a clear demonstration that it’s possible to do so. This study is a great example of what happens when creative, ambitious organisations work together to better understand and solve a tough problem.”

The study follows the setting up of a cross-sector task force last year of aviation industry, tech sector and academic leaders to explore opportunities to address the warming impact of certain contrails. Assembled by RMI and Breakthrough Energy, the Contrail Impact Task Force includes airlines Alaska, American, Southwest, United and Virgin Atlantic, as well as Airbus, Boeing, Flightkeys, Google Research and Imperial College London.

It aims to reduce the climate impact from contrails by:

• Sharing and expanding on the latest science on the climate impact of contrails;
• Developing actionable strategies to avoid warming contrails;
• Analysing the operational and financial challenges of implementing potential solutions; and
• Establishing a roadmap for implementation and validation of contrail mitigation tools.

“The creation of the task force is a significant step in fostering the industry’s climate action. As a cross-industry stakeholder group, it demonstrates leadership and continued commitment to reduce aviation’s climate impact,” said an RMI blog. “The exact contribution of contrails to climate warming may still be uncertain, but a collaborative approach can serve as a catalyst for developing a greater understanding of contrail science, prediction and verification tools, and mitigation opportunities.”

Top image: Google AI detecting contrails over the United States, based on satellite imagery

Christopher Surgenor

Editor

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Following its successful bid for UK government funding of £1 million ($1.2m), Virgin Atlantic says it expects to conduct the first-ever net zero transatlantic flight to be powered by 100% sustainable aviation fuel in November. The airline has put together a consortium with six partners – Boeing, Rolls-Royce, Imperial College London, University of Sheffield, ICF and Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) – and is forming up to seven working groups for what it describes as a highly challenging project. Virgin is targeting the Rolls-Royce engine-powered Boeing 787 flight between London Heathrow and New York JFK to carry non-paying passengers, subject to approval by regulators, a representative from the airline told a UK SAF conference. The flight is part of the UK government’s ‘Jet Zero’ strategy to decarbonise the UK aviation sector, with SAF as one of the main tools for achieving a target of net zero emissions by 2050. To create a demand for SAF, the government is introducing a mandated obligation on fuel suppliers from 2025. A Department for Transport (DfT) official said a second consultation on the mandate will be launched shortly, with a final policy decision expected later this year.

Virgin is looking to acquire around 60 tonnes of HEFA fuel with a 12% synthetic aromatic content, of which 45-50 tonnes will be used for the transatlantic flight and the remainder for testing and approvals purposes, Luke Ervine, the airline’s Head of Sustainability, informed delegates at the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Supply Chain Initiative event in Leeds organised by Innovate UK KTN, a government agency tasked with accelerating the creation of a UK SAF industry, and supported by the DfT and industry group Sustainable Aviation.

“We’d love to have passengers onboard but that is going to involve a lot of conversations at a high level with the UK CAA and DfT,” said Ervine. “Everything will be grounded in safety and we will be led by the approvals process.”

He said the airline was currently considering commercial agreements with potential UK suppliers for the HEFA fuel requirement and the synthetic aromatic kerosene would need to be imported from the United States as there was only one supplier at present.

Virgin is working with the University of Sheffield on fuel analysis and ICF on lifecycle assessment and emissions reduction validation. Another working group, involving RMI and Imperial College, will focus on climate-warming contrail formation to better understand the roles SAF and route planning can play in their avoidance. US-based RMI has recently formed a cross-sector task force, which includes Imperial College, to explore opportunities to address the warming impact of contrails.

Imperial’s Dr Marc Stettler told the conference non-CO2 effects, particularly from ice crystal contrail formations in the upper atmosphere caused by water vapour and soot particles from jet engine exhausts, were at least as important as CO2 in terms of the overall climate impact of aviation, which taken together contribute around 3.5% to total anthropogenic radiative forcing.

Pointing to research carried out by NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Stettler said there was evidence that cleaner-burning jet fuels made from sustainable sources can produce 50-70% fewer ice crystal contrails at cruising altitude. Given that only a small number of flights, particularly those flying at dusk or dawn, or in wintertime, were responsible for most of the warming contrails, he suggested there were potentially significant climate benefits by targeting the use of SAF on these flights.

In addition to the use of SAF, the Virgin flight will focus attention on flight efficiency and route optimisation, and to ensure it is completely net zero, residual emissions will be removed through biochar carbon credits purchased from the carbon market.

“We intend collecting all the data and create an open source information platform across industry stakeholders to share the lessons learned and help others with their own operations,” said Ervine.

Hazel Schofield, Deputy Head of Low Carbon Fuels at the UK Department for Transport, said the government mandate would ensure 10% of UK jet fuel by 2030, around 1.5 billion litres, was made up of SAF produced from wastes, with a separate target for power-to-liquid fuels. A cap would be placed on HEFA fuels to encourage new-generation fuels produced from gasification/FT and alcohol-to-jet technologies.

She said the impending government consultation would include full details of what will be included in the legislation and how the 2030 target was to be achieved. The government is also setting up a SAF clearing house to help potential UK SAF producers access testing capacity in the UK for certification purposes rather than ship fuel abroad for testing. Schofield said the DfT hoped to announce a delivery partner shortly.

Other than decarbonisation, she said the government had three main priorities for setting up a UK SAF industry: fuel resilience so the UK was not reliant on imported fuels, opportunities for UK green economic growth and also for green jobs. However, there were four barriers to investment in SAF:

• Feedstock access;
• Technologies required for conversion;
• Construction of plants; and
• Revenue uncertainty

She said the government has commissioned an independent review of the challenges and a report would be published shortly, after consideration by ministers.

“Yes, there has been a lot of progress and we have moved forward over the last year but there is certainly a lot more to do,” she concluded.

Also speaking at the conference, Jonathon Counsell, Group Head of Sustainability at International Airlines Group and Chair of the Jet Zero Council’s SAF Delivery Group, said that to achieve the 10% by 2030 target, five commercial-scale SAF production plants needed to be under construction by 2025.

“These plants will therefore need to hit financial close by mid-2024, so policies will need to be in legislation by the end of this year or certainly in the first half of next year,” he said.

“We recognise the mandate can create a demand signal but this needs to be supplemented by some form of price stability mechanism, such as we’ve seen in other renewable industries and we strongly feel it’s needed for SAF.”

To ensure price certainty and reduce investor risk, Counsell suggested a proven policy instrument such as Contracts for Difference should be implemented by the government.

The Jet Zero Council is a government/industry body set up in 2020 with the objective to accelerate delivery of net zero emissions for the UK aviation sector, with a focus on areas needing policy support. Counsell’s SAF Delivery Group has three sub-groups responsible for the mandate’s development, SAF commercialisation and technologies and feedstocks required for SAF production. Twelve financial institutions are now participating in the commercialisation sub-group, said Counsell.

He reported overseas interest in the JZC concept. “We have had conversations with other countries who would like to replicate the Council. We are supporting the establishment of a JZC in Australia and engaged in discussions with Spain and Ireland,” he said.

Ministers responsible for the Department for Transport and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy co-chair the Council. The latter was broken up in a reshuffle last week to create a new Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, which is led by former Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps.

Image (Boeing): Virgin Atlantic Boeing 787-9

Christopher Surgenor

Editor

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RSB and Air bp announced their partnership in a sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) book and claim pilot earlier this year and, as part of the pilot, were joined by Microsoft, United Airlines and the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA) to record the first transaction in the RSB book and claim register. With an approximate 80% reduction in lifecycle emissions in comparison with fossil jet fuel, 7,000 gallons (21 tonnes) of waste-based SAF were supplied by Air bp to United Airlines at UK airports. The sustainability attributes of the fuel were purchased by and credited to Microsoft, a founding company of SABA, which is managed by RMI and the Environmental Defense Fund, reports Susan van Dyk. The transaction was audited and verified by RSB, and the SAF credits were recorded in a book and claim register and retired by Microsoft after the fuel was used. Experience from the pilot scheme, together with broad stakeholder consultations, are contributing to the development of a book and claim manual by RSB, which will establish the rules for a robust, credible and transparent system that verifies the emission reductions achieved while avoiding double counting. Bryan Fisher, Managing Director of RMI’s Climate-Aligned Industries programme, said the book and claim system was “a gamechanger” for the SAF market.

“Virtual ownership of SAF’s environmental attributes can accelerate the technology by unlocking new payers and their resources, and that is why SABA has prioritised participation in this pilot,” he said.

A book and claim system allows the separation of the physical SAF from its sustainability attributes and permits a company to purchase and claim the emission reductions from SAF use regardless of the physical fuel supply location. The company purchasing the sustainability attributes does not use the physical fuel, but claims the SAF credits, which represents a volume of CO2 emissions prevented. In this case, Microsoft purchased 21 SAF credits, representing 21 tonnes of SAF, resulting in a reduction of 53 tonnes of CO2 (calculated on the basis that one tonne of fuel emits 3.16 tonnes of CO2 and an 80% lifecycle reduction). As the customer does not have to use the fuel, purchasing the SAF credits are not limited to fuel users such as airlines but can be done by any company who wants to reduce their Scope 3 emissions.

United and Microsoft have previously purchased SAF, but this was the first time SAF environmental attributes have been transferred using RSB’s book and claim system. RSB is developing the system with input from multiple stakeholders across the aviation value chain, including airlines, fuel producers, corporate customers and others. Feedback from stakeholders and learning experiences during the pilot scheme will help RSB to develop rules in a book and claim manual as a guide for a robust, credible and transparent system that can be used by any stakeholder.

Transactions under a book and claim system will be recorded in a registry, which SABA will be developing in collaboration with RSB and Clean Skies for Tomorrow (CST), said Kim Carnahan, SABA Secretariat Lead and Senior Director Net Zero Fuels at ENGIE Impact. This universal electronic ledger or registry will be compatible with the RSB book and claim system, which will detail the rules for how credits can be booked and claimed. Carnahan further explained that the book and claim manual would allow environmental attributes from any SAF certified by RSB and ISCC to be claimed under the system.

The greatest concern with book and claim transactions is the risk of double counting occurring when SAF emissions may be counted more than once towards a climate mitigation effort. Pedro Piris-Cabezas, Director of Sustainable International Transport and Lead Senior Economist at the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) discussed the risk at the recent RSB Annual Conference. Avoiding double counting starts with a robust book and claim system from an ICAO-approved Sustainability Certification Scheme such as RSB, he explained, with transactions recorded in a registry.

While there is a risk of double counting between air carriers and corporations, the accounting of emissions reductions by countries in their national inventory reports also poses a risk for double counting. Piris-Cabezas recommends the fuel supplier must secure a commitment from the host country to report the SAF as international bunker fuel in its national inventory reports to ensure that emissions reductions are not claimed twice. Under UNFCCC rules, international bunker fuels (aviation and shipping) are reported separately and are a source of emissions not addressed under countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). Piris-Cabezas also highlighted the potential impact of a country’s policy environment and incentive schemes for SAF purchase under a book and claim system as a fuel producer would not be able to claim emission credits for the same SAF. SABA is providing guidance on how to simultaneously address UK policy requirements (as the SAF for the pilot was supplied and used in the UK) and recognise the emissions benefits for voluntary corporate purchases.

According to Elizabeth Willmott, Carbon Program Manager at Microsoft, the pilot offers the opportunity to ensure transparency and credibility for environmental claims for SAF purchases. RSB’s new Executive Director, Elena Schmidt, welcomed the participation of Microsoft and United in the RSB pilot project, which she said “took the pilot into the real world”. Microsoft’s commitment to sourcing RSB-certified fuel is an example of how companies can use their buying power to drive positive impacts, even outside their direct supply chains, she added.

Kelley Kizzier, EDF’s VP Global Climate, said SABA was looking forward to applying the lessons learned from the pilot to the development of an electronic book and claim registry, alongside RSB, so that more air transport customers could benefit.

At the recent COP26 climate talks in Glasgow, SABA announced the addition of an Aviators group to their membership, formed by Amazon Air, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue and United Airlines. SABA said the new group would help “send even stronger demand signal to drive greater SAF production, price reduction and technological innovation”. EDF and RMI also unveiled SABA’s formal membership structure at the COP26 event, opening membership opportunities to airlines, companies and non-profit organisations.

SABA was launched by RMI and EDF in April 2021 with founding members Boeing, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Netflix, Bank of America, McKinsey & Company, and Salesforce, with Meta (formerly Facebook) later joining as a founding member.

Photo: SABA’s Kim Carnahan presents the initiative during COP26. The event included a keynote from US Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and a panel session with representatives from United Airlines, Alaska Air, Amazon, McKinsey & Company and Deloitte. A YouTube video recording is available here

Susan van Dyk

GreenAir Correspondent

www.svdconsulting.ca

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US government departments and agencies have joined with the aviation and fuel sectors to agree a stimulus package to put US aviation on track to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. It includes new and ongoing funding opportunities to support sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) projects and fuel producers totalling up to $4.3 billion in efforts to boost production of SAF to at least 3 billion gallons per year by 2030 under a ‘Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge’ initiative. Through their trade body A4A, US airlines pledged in March to work towards making 2 billion gallons of SAF available by 2030 but are now increasing that goal by an additional 50%. The Biden administration also announced its backing for a SAF tax credit to incentivise and scale up production as part of its Build Back Better green agenda. Also announced were an increase in R&D activities on new technologies to spur developments in aircraft fuel efficiency and efforts to improve air traffic and airport efficiency. The administration said it would be strengthening its aviation and climate change leadership internationally and will support the adoption at ICAO of a long-term aspirational goal for reducing aviation emissions.

“President Biden is taking steps to coordinate leadership and innovation across the federal government, aircraft manufacturers, airlines, fuel producers, airports and non-governmental organisations to advance the use of cleaner and more sustainable fuels in American aviation,” said a White House fact sheet released after a roundtable on sustainable aviation held on September 9. “These new agency steps and industry partnerships will transform the aviation sector, create good-paying jobs, support American agriculture and manufacturing, and help us tackle the climate crisis.”

Responded A4A President Nicholas Calio, who attended the White House meeting: “We are proud of our record on climate change, but we know the climate change challenge has only continued to intensify. Accordingly, A4A member carriers have embraced the need to take even bolder, more significant steps to address the climate crisis.”

Commercial flights contribute 11% of US transportation-related emissions and 2% of the nation’s total. “Without increased action, aviation’s share of emissions is likely to increase as more people and goods fly. That is why leadership and innovation in this sector is so essential if we hope to put the aviation industry, and the economy on track to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050,” says the Biden administration.

“Achieving a sustainable aviation industry requires energy efficiency improvements in aircraft technology and better operations. In the future, electric and hydrogen-powered aviation may unlock affordable and convenient local and regional travel. But for today’s long-distance travel, we need bold partnerships to spur the deployment of billions of gallons of sustainable aviation fuels quickly.”

Current levels of domestic SAF production are around 4.5 million gallons per year. Jet fuel consumption from domestic and outgoing international flights totalled 19.2 billion gallons in 2019, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, still lower than peak consumption years but had been edging up since 2015 prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. A 3-billion-gallon goal therefore represents a 15% share of total jet fuel consumption being taken up by SAF in 2030, if based on 2019. The actions taken, says the administration, will enable aviation emissions to drop 20% by 2030 when compared to business as usual if the goal is met.

The proposed SAF tax credit requires a minimum 50% reduction in lifecycle GHG emissions and so offers an increased incentive for greater reductions. The Department of Energy (DOE), Department of Transportation (DOT) and US Department of Agriculture (USDA) are to support SAF producers through the new Grand Challenge initiative in order to work with stakeholders to reduce costs, enhance sustainability and expand production and use of SAF that meets the 50% lifecycle reduction. In addition to the 2030 goal, the target is to meet 100% of aviation fuel demand with SAF by 2050, which is currently projected to be around 35 billion gallons per year. In a series of actions to be taken:

• USDA will support US farmers with climate-smart agriculture practices and research, including biomass feedstock genetic development, sustainable crop and forest management at scale, and post-harvest supply chain logistics. USDA will also support fuel producers with carbon modelling components of aviation biofuel feedstocks.
• The Environmental Protection Agency and DOE will collaborate to identify data collection needs, assess technical information and take other steps designed to expedite the regulatory approval process to support newly developed fuels and feedstocks that might be viable for inclusion as able to generate Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) under renewable fuel in the Federal Renewable Fuel Standard programme.
• The FAA will make 14 grant awards with FY21 funds to the Aviation Sustainability Center (ASCENT) totalling more than $3.6 million. This will support the SAF approval clearing house in conducting evaluation testing to ensure that new fuels are safe for use.

Other funding initiatives include the DOE Bioenergy Technologies Office’s already announced $35 million for 11 projects developing feedstock and algae technologies for advancing the domestic bioeconomy, plus a new additional $61 million to advance biofuels and support the reduced cost of SAF pathways, including 11 projects that are scaling up promising technologies to produce SAF. The DOE is also offering up to $3 billion in loan guarantees, with commercial-scale SAF projects that utilise innovative technology and avoid, reduce or sequester GHG emissions and meet other requirements potentially eligible. Department of Defense (DOD) funding, subject to appropriations, is to be made available to certify the use of up to four additional SAF pathways already approved in the commercial market, as well as additional SAF pathways in the ASTM approval pipeline for military aircraft.

Further initiatives, collaborations and funding have been announced by NASA, FAA, DOD and DOE to achieve at least a 30% improvement in aircraft fuel efficiency, improving air traffic and airport efficiency to reduce fuel use, eliminate lead exposure and ensure cleaner air in and around airports.

The administration says it plans to release an aviation climate action plan in the coming months. It also commits the United States “to asserting positive leadership on aviation and climate change.

Adds the White House statement: “As a country, we will re-establish US credibility through ambitious domestic commitments and realistic action plans for implementing those commitments, demonstrate leadership on aviation ambition at the International Civil Aviation Organization by showing the world by implementing CORSIA transparently and effectively, and supporting adoption of a long-term aspirational goal for reducing aviation emissions. We will also engage with bilateral and regional partners to forge a diverse coalition of States committed to greater ambition and action on aviation.”

In addition to representation from the aviation and SAF production sectors, the roundtable was also attended by Fred Krupp, President of Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and Jules Kortenhorst, CEO of RMI, which are spearheading the recently-formed Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA).

“In the coming months, the administration will be challenged to develop a methodology to determine the environmental criteria to ensure that only high-integrity SAF receives public support. The administration’s call for credibility and consistency with the international community, including ICAO, makes us optimistic. EDF and our partners in SABA are up to the task of ensuring that SAF contributes effectively to decarbonisation,” said Pedro Piris-Cabezas, EDF’s Director for Sustainable International Transport.

Photo: Alaska Airlines

A new certificate system has been launched that will allow corporations and travellers to claim lower emission benefits through covering the price premium of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). It aims to unlock funding sources and help boost demand for clean jet fuels that ensure reductions in lifecycle carbon emissions. The Sustainable Aviation Fuel Certificate (SAFc) has been developed through the World Economic Forum’s Clean Skies for Tomorrow (WEF CST) initiative under a project co-led by WEF, RMI and PwC Netherlands and involving a wide range of industry partners. The system works within standard book-and-claim processes, which will allow the actual SAF to be delivered to the airport nearest its production plant. The certification is initially designed for corporations with significant air travel and freight carbon footprints but WEF said it can be expanded in due course. A number of large US corporations have recently signed SAF agreements with airlines including American and Alaska.

“Clean Skies for Tomorrow was founded to accelerate the deployment of SAF and aviation’s net zero pathway,” said Pedro Gomez, Head of Shaping the Future of Mobility at WEF. “Consumer demand for sustainable air travel is a critical part of that pathway and SAFc was specifically designed to enable a clear and consistent market demand signal.”

With SAF two to five times the price of convention jet fuel and accounting for only 0.1% of fuel used in aircraft worldwide, the high cost and limited supply deters investment to scale up production and requires a significant demand stimulus, which the SAFc mechanism aims to provide, says WEF. This kind of intervention is particularly critical during the pandemic recovery, it adds, when a financially perilous aviation industry is unable to subsidise increased use of SAF on its own.

“This is the time for innovation in aviation emissions reduction,” said Jules Kortenhorst, CEO of RMI. “SAF provides the most promising solution to reducing aviation emissions yet today, demand for SAF far outstrips supply. WEF and RMI have developed SAFc to enable ambitious corporations to address emissions from flying while sending a strong demand signal and catalysing new SAF production.”

WEF says corporations have already indicated a willingness to pay more for employees’ sustainable travel practices and input from stakeholders in the CST initiative suggests corporate demand alone can cover one-third of the price premium associated with IATA’s 2025 global SAF volume target of 2% of jet fuel consumption, or around 6-7 billion litres. In terms of ticket prices, feedback from many CST’s aviation customer partners indicates a 5-10% increase in airfares would be acceptable provided this delivered a significant and verifiable decrease in emissions, reports WEF.

Some large companies within the CST coalition – including Deloitte, Deutsche Post, DHL Group, Microsoft and BCG – have already signed SAF agreements in respect of corporate travel with airlines including Alaska Airlines and American Airlines (see articles here and here). In May, a group of large American corporations formed the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance to drive investment in SAF (see article)

The SAFc system has been designed with a robust tracking and verification process, assures WEF, as well as a registry to ensure that climate-related claims are legitimate and only claimed by a single party. It says this type of virtual accounting system is already established in renewable electricity markets through energy attribute certificates and guarantees of origin, and has served as a model for the SAFc framework. These mechanisms verify that electricity is generated from an eligible renewable source and have been instrumental in allowing companies to claim the resulting environmental benefits without producing electricity themselves.

Under the SAFc mechanism, fuel producers generate eligible SAF from sustainable feedstocks following standards such as those developed by the ICAO CORSIA scheme. They issue a defined amount of SAFc based on either fuel volume or overall lifecycle emission reductions. Producers can then sell the actual SAF volume as well as the virtual SAF certificates separately. In a volumetric model, SAFc prices could factor in the overall premium of the associated SAF over fossil-based jet fuel after government incentives are incorporated. In a lifecycle assessment (LCA) based model, SAFc prices would be based on overall LCA emission reductions over a standardised baseline of fossil-based jet fuel. SAF buyers or users such as aircraft operators can claim the direct (Scope 1) emissions reduction value of the SAF itself and the buyer of the SAFc, such as a corporation with business travel needs, can retire the certificate and claim the related indirect (Scope 3) emission reductions.

Once the SAF has been certified as sustainable, it can be transacted and ownership transfer is tracked both physically and virtually until claims are retired within a registry.

Over the next year, WEF says the development of the SAFc framework will shift into a next phase that will include additional SAFc pilot transactions and finalisation of a full emissions accounting system. Other developments will ensure compatibility with regional SAF regulations and policies, such as the EU SAF blending mandate and California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard.

Photo: Deloitte has teamed with American Airlines to offset business travel emissions through SAF

A group of America’s most prominent companies have become founder members of a partnership set up to drive investment in high-quality sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA) is an initiative of RMI and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), with founding members Boeing, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft, Netflix and Salesforce. A significant portion of the members’ carbon footprint results from business travel and by purchasing SAF, these corporations will be able to access the GHG reductions associated with SAF to directly mitigate their travel carbon footprint. SABA aims to create an aggregated demand for SAF, sending a potentially strong market signal for SAF which it expects will boost development of SAF production and investment into the sector, reports Susan van Dyk. According to RMI’s Adam Klauber, demand created by SABA could amount to 2 billion gallons of SAF by 2025, a significant volume based on current SAF production, which is less than 0.01% of current jet fuel demand.

SABA says its mission is to accelerate the path to net zero aviation through high-quality SAF, catalysing new SAF production and technological innovation and supporting member engagement in SAF policy-making. It has set out three objectives:

• Expand the SAF investment opportunity by establishing an environmentally rigorous, transparent SAF certificate system, and develop an approach to aggregate member demand to incentivise new SAF supply;
• Provide education and policy support to members; and
• Assess emerging SAF technologies and address barriers to scale and cost reduction.

Even during the best of times, airlines operate on slim margins and have a limited ability to pay high premiums for SAF, which can range from three to six times higher than conventional jet fuel, although a number of major airlines have offtake agreements in place with potential SAF producers to narrow the price gap. Long-term development and commercialisation of SAF will require policy intervention to create a market demand and bridge the gap.

In the absence of such policies, SAF use may be limited to airlines willing to pay the price premium, funded through increased ticket prices or other mechanisms that may affect airline competitiveness. SABA’s members, on the other hand, could more readily pay a premium for SAF, said Adam Klauber, Senior Technical Advisor at RMI (formerly Rocky Mountain Institute), who leads its sustainable aviation team.

According to SABA Secretariat lead Kim Carnahan, Director of Disruption Technologies at ENGIE Impact and former US Chief Negotiator for Climate Change, “A large, growing number of companies have committed to ambitious climate goals and are focusing on driving reductions within their value chain.”

Added Microsoft’s Carbon Program Manager, Elizabeth Willmott: “We have a bold commitment to become carbon negative by 2030 and this requires us to create innovative new solutions and partnerships. As a corporate buyer and vocal supporter of high-quality SAF, we’re pleased to join together with companies leading on climate action to support SABA’s mission to decarbonise aviation and ultimately increase SAF production and adoption.”

Many corporations indirectly contribute to aviation emissions through business travel. The Boston Consulting Group, for example, indicate that business travel constitutes about 80% of the company’s carbon footprint. As they are not direct users of jet fuel, they cannot directly use SAF to mitigate these emissions, but Environmental Attribute Certificates (EACs), or SAF certificates, can be used to reduce this climate impact. Indirect emitters are willing to pay the premium but cannot take ownership of the fuel and EACs allow them to access the reductions within their value chain.

“SABA adds momentum to existing airline-company partnerships that support the purchase of sustainable aviation fuels,” said Kelley Kizzier, Vice President of the Global Climate programme at EDF. “SABA will build on the work of these early movers, many of whom seek a more scalable, standardised approach, by establishing a SAF certificate system with robust environmental criteria. Working with sustainability certification schemes, this system will verify and track emission reductions from SAF so that companies, organisations and even individual travellers can achieve their ambitious climate goals.”

Similar to a book-and-claim system, the environmental attributes of SAF will be decoupled from the physical fuel and tracked as SAF certificates using digital markers. The SAF certificate system includes:

• a lifecycle assessment approach;
• sustainability criteria; and
• a tracking and verification approach to create a SAF traceability system and a SAF certificate registry system, established alongside approved sustainability certification schemes under ICAO’s Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme (CORSIA).

The registry system will be designed to be publicly available and transparent, holding the SAF certificates purchased by companies and document retirement of certificates.

“SABA builds off the foundational SAF sustainability work under ICAO and the ‘Corporate Demand’ approach developed with the World Economic Forum’s Clean Skies for Tomorrow,” said Klauber.

A commonly used method of climate mitigation is the purchase of carbon offsets and this forms the basis of CORSIA. However, other studies, including a recent report from the Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit and Oxford Net Zero, argue offsets do not always provide fully additional effort, and reliance on them may present risks to effective mitigation. A clear conclusion from the report is that offsetting cannot be a substitute for significant emissions cuts. Net zero pledges can play a central role in guiding the ongoing emissions reductions needed to deliver the Paris goals, it says, but adds “analysis shows that these commitments vary hugely in their quality”.

SABA members, in contrast, have used Science Based Targets (SBT), an initiative to drive ambitious climate action in the private sector, which espouses a mitigation hierarchy that prioritises eliminating sources of emissions within the value chain. According to SBT, carbon offsets can only be used as a last resort. SBT helps companies set targets for reducing their carbon footprint and uses a scientific basis to verify targets in accordance with the Paris Agreement. The purchase of SAF and acquiring of SAF certificates therefore reduces the climate impact within the aviation sector where emissions are created.

The SAF market is nascent with significant challenges and current availability of SAF is limited. SABA will contract with SAF producers to purchase SAF certificates through RFPs, the first to be issued in Q1 of 2022. Using a 10-12 month lead time for delivery of SAF certificates will enable SAF producers to ramp up production and allow a broader group to SAF producers to participate as only two SAF producers can currently supply commercial volumes of fuel. This will support the creation of new and additional SAF supply capacity and send increased revenue to fuel suppliers, as well as enhance price transparency and competition in the SAF market.

Founding members will be limited to 12 corporations but according to Carnahan, SABA is planning to open up to broader membership after an official launch at COP26 in November. With a large membership, the aggregated demand for SAF could have a significant impact on SAF development and commercialisation, believes the alliance.

Scott Corwin, Deloitte US Leader for Sustainability and Climate Change, said: “Efforts such as SABA are important to harnessing the power of the market to set in motion and sustain the innovations needed to create a zero-carbon future.”

Fellow SABA member Dr Emma Stewart, Sustainability Officer at Netflix, added: “It’s impossible to stabilise the climate without decarbonising aviation emissions. Air travel plays an important role in how Netflix entertains the world – we can’t produce films, TV series and nature documentaries without it. We’re co-founding SABA to build a future where climate-friendly air travel is possible and invite other companies to join the charge.”

Said Carnahan: “This is just the beginning for SABA. We will announce additional founding companies soon.”

Photo: Alaska Airlines

Susan van Dyk

GreenAir Correspondent

www.svdconsulting.ca

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