Madrid-based energy group Cepsa and Singapore-controlled Bio-Oils, a division of Apical, have announced the start of construction of a new biofuels plant in southern Spain, which from 2026 aims to produce low carbon transport fuels from agricultural waste or used cooking oil. The partners say their new second generation (2G) fuel facility in Huelva will have annual capability to flexibly produce 500,000 tons of SAF and renewable diesel, as well as biogas and biogenic CO2, and claim that through the use of renewable hydrogen and electricity, and multiple heat recovery and energy efficiency systems, it will emit 75% less CO2 than other biofuel plants. It will also use reclaimed water rather than fresh supplies. Elsewhere in Spain, energy company Repsol has received certification from the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) that permits it to trade SAF within RSB’s book-and-claim system. This enables Repsol to sell and deliver SAF at specific airports and enter it into the RSB registry, thus allowing customers at other airports around the world to claim the carbon reductions of the registered SAF when purchasing traditional jet fuel.

Together with facilities they already operate in Huelva, in Spain’s Andalusia region, Cepsa and Bio-Oils expect to form Europe’s second-largest renewable fuel complex, with total annual production capacity of 1 million tons, the use of which they claim will prevent the emission of 3 million tons of CO2 per year, equivalent to 4% of the emissions produced by road transport in Spain.

At a time of growing concern about funding for sustainable aviation programmes, the new plant is also solidly supported, with Cepsa jointly owned by the UAE sovereign investment company Mubadala and Washington DC-based global investment fund The Carlyle Group, while Bio-Oils is a division of Singapore-based industrialist Apical, a leading international producer of vegetable oil products including renewable fuel feedstocks. The two will invest €1.2 billion ($1.3bn) in the Huelva project, which is also supported by the regional government of Andalusia, and is expected to create 2,000 direct and indirect jobs during the construction and operation phases.

“This strategic project for Spain and Andalusia will make us a European benchmark in the field of green molecules and facilitate the immediate decarbonisation of sectors that cannot run on electrons, like aviation,” said Cepsa CEO Maarten Wetselaar. “This is the start of a new chapter for Cepsa and this region that will generate quality employment and a new era of industrialisation.”

Apical’s Executive Director, Pratheepan Karunagaran, said global production of SAF was expected to triple this year compared to last, but added that availability of sustainable feedstock was a challenge for many countries. His company has signed a long-term agreement to supply feedstock for the new Huelva plant.

“As we continue to expand Apical’s global footprint and capacities, the availability of waste and residue is set to grow in tandem, enabling value-added partnerships to be forged for our waste stream to drive the production and adoption of SAF,” said Karunagaran. “Our 2G biofuels plant with Cepsa, which will be the largest aviation fuel processing facility in southern Europe, is an excellent example of how industry players can come together to unlock the potential of SAF and scale up adoption in an affordable manner.”

Juan Manuel Bonilla, President of the regional government of Andalusia, said his region “is ready to become Europe’s major producer and distributor of clean energy, playing a key role in the irrevocable goal of decarbonising the planet. This future biofuel plant by Cepsa is a clear and valuable example.”

Elsewhere in southern Spain, Repsol is currently completing final commissioning of its advanced biofuels plant in Cartagena, which will have the capacity to produce 250,000 tons of SAF and renewable diesel per year from organic waste. The company has been producing SAF at its refineries since 2020 and supplying airlines including Iberia, Air Europa, Vueling, Iberojet and cargo operator Atlas Air. In May 2023, Repsol signed a long-term agreement with Ryanair to supply up to 155,000 tons of SAF for its operations in Spain and Portugal between 2025 and 2030.

Repsol said gaining the new RSB certification will open a wider global market for it to supply SAF from the Cartagena plant.

“Being certified to access the world’s most credible and robust book-and-claim system is a milestone for Repsol,” said Carlos Suarez, the company’s Director of International Aviation. “It enables us to introduce more SAF into the supply chain, allowing more players in the aviation sector to take advantage of the benefits from SAF. Our new plant in Cartagena is a guarantee that we can supply the fuel and thus help boost the reduction of the carbon footprint of air transport.”

RSB’s chain of custody model has been developed to ensure full traceability and credibility, as well as a demonstrable climate impact by avoiding double counting in the process, says Repsol. The carbon reductions associated with the SAF are registered as a ‘book-and-claim unit’ and transferred to any willing buyer globally, while the physical fuel delivered at the nearest airport does not have any sustainability criteria attached. Currently, book-and-claim is only targeting voluntary markets and not compliance regimes.

“Trust is the centrepiece of book-and-claim, and delivering a trustworthy solution built on a genuinely global muti-stakeholder approach is fundamental for the RSB,” said Elena Schmidt, Executive Director of RSB.

Repsol received the certification through SGS, accredited by RSB to perform independent audits. “Verification by SGS guarantees the traceability, accuracy and coherence of the information communicated and reinforces the transparency of Repsol’s chain of custody processes,” said Jesús Bennasar, Director of Sustainability Services at SGS Iberia.

Photo: Cepsa

Tony Harrington

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Additional reporting by Christopher Surgenor

Coinciding with the start of the 2024 Singapore Airshow, the Singapore government has announced a 1% blending target for sustainable aviation fuel with effect from 2026, rising to 3-5% by 2030, and partly funded by a levy on air fares, making the country the first to ensure departing passengers pay towards helping the transition to lower carbon jet fuel. It has also announced a range of air traffic management initiatives in partnership with other Asia-Pacific nations and pledged increased clean energy production and deployment at its two airports, Changi and Selatar. The measures are contained in the Sustainable Air Hub Blueprint, a strategy document developed by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) as the ‘State action plan for the decarbonisation of its aviation sector and sustainable aviation growth’, positioning the island state as a regional driver of cleaner air transport. But the blueprint also makes clear that environmental sustainability must be balanced with the nation’s need to remain a competitive aviation hub.

Singapore’s gentle switch to SAF is a key element of the Sustainable Air Hub Blueprint and reaffirms a gradual but increasing focus by Asia-Pacific nations on more sustainable air transport. It also aligns with the 2030 SAF target of 5% agreed late last year by the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA), a collective of 15 carriers including Singapore Airlines.   

“To kickstart SAF adoption in Singapore, flights departing Singapore will be required to use SAF from 2026,” says the report.  “We will aim for a 1% SAF target for a start to encourage investment in SAF production and develop an ecosystem for more resilient and affordable supply. Our goal is to raise the SAF target beyond 1% in 2026 to 3-5% by 2030, subject to global developments and the wider availability and adoption of SAF.”

Acknowledging that global SAF supplies are currently less than 1% of global jet fuel demand, the report says capacity will need to increase exponentially to meet projected demand in 2050, adding: “It is critical that we provide fuel producers with a demand signal to give them the confidence to make further investments in SAF production, and accelerate global SAF production.”

CAAS will introduce an airline passenger levy in 2026 for the purchase of SAF to help achieve usage targets, with price to be based on flight length and class of travel, explaining: “As market for the supply of SAF is still nascent and the price of SAF can be volatile, this approach will provide cost certainty to airlines and travellers.”

It suggests economy class passengers could pay a levy of 3 Singapore dollars (US$2.20) for a short-haul flight, 6 Singapore dollars (US$4.40) for a medium-haul flight and 16 Singapore dollars (US$12) for a long-haul flight.

However, the report also specifies: “Environmental sustainability needs to be balanced with the Singapore air hub’s competitiveness to support the growth of the aviation industry in the upcoming decades. The blueprint demonstrates this resolve and sets out Singapore’s medium-term and long-term targets.”  

It reveals procurement of Singapore’s SAF will be centralised, using the air ticket levies “to aggregate demand and reap economies of scale”, and says businesses and organisations will be invited to purchase the low-or-no carbon fuel through this mechanism to help offset “in a credible and cost-effective manner” the travel carbon emissions generated.

The report acknowledges the activation last year by global renewable fuels company Neste of a refurbished refinery in Singapore’s Tuas industrial zone with capacity to produce up to 1 million tonnes of SAF per year, a tenfold increase, making it the largest SAF production plant currently in operation, but added that more of the fuel was needed.

Currently, most of the SAF provided at the plant is exported to other higher-demand markets, due to lower demand from airlines and lack of SAF blending and use mandates across the Asia-Pacific region.

“The presence of an existing petrochemical sector in Singapore provides a good base for new SAF facilities in Singapore,” says the aviation blueprint. “Nonetheless, given the tremendous increase in SAF production capacity required globally, there is scope for more SAF production to be based in Singapore, which will also support the needs of Changi Airport.”

The report advocates greater SAF production across the Southeast Asia region, and potentially more broadly across Asia and the Pacific, but acknowledges shortages of fuel feedstocks and competing demand from sectors such as shipping, road transport and energy act as a constraint on SAF availability.

“There is a need to widen feedstock availability across different regions to unlock more SAF production globally,” says CAAS. “To do this, there should be consistent rules for acceptability and sustainability requirements for feedstock.

“Singapore promotes the recognition of CORSIA’s sustainability criteria as the accepted basis for the eligibility of SAF. We encourage the industry to adopt a feedstock-neutral approach and not exclude any particular feedstock, as long as it meets the CORSIA sustainability criteria and delivers the required carbon emissions reduction.”

To this end, CAAS has joined in a regional study led by Boeing and the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials to develop a SAF roadmap to identify the availability and sustainability of fuel feedstocks in Southeast Asia, ascertain feasible production pathways and identify potential pilot projects to drive regional SAF development.

Beyond progressing SAF, the blueprint also highlights air traffic management initiatives designed to help increase air transport efficiency while reducing emissions during the next five years, including greater coordination of flights between airspace navigation service providers and techniques to optimise flight paths and trajectories.

The report also specifies a range of initiatives to reduce emissions on the ground including increased generation and use of solar power at Changi and Selatar airports, and transition to clean energy propulsion for all airport vehicles by 2040, commencing with introduction of electric-powered light vehicles including cars, vans, minibuses and some forklifts and tractors from 2025.

Photo: Singapore Airlines

Tony Harrington

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Singapore Airlines (SIA) and its low-cost sibling Scoot have started using sustainable aviation fuel on flights from their Changi Airport home base following the launch this week of a 12-month pilot programme in which neat SAF will be blended locally, certificated and delivered via existing infrastructure. Under the initiative, driven by the Singapore government, the waste-to-fuel producer Neste will provide 1,000 tonnes of SAF, which will be blended with refined jet fuel at ExxonMobil’s Singapore facilities. Use of the fuel is expected to cut aircraft carbon emissions by 2,500 tonnes. The programme is a collaboration between SIA, the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and GenZero, a division of state investment company Temasek, which is focused on global decarbonisation projects. In a parallel initiative by CAAS, SIA and Temasek, SAF credits will be available for purchase from this month, initially enabling corporate travellers and freight forwarders to help cut the carbon emissions of passenger and cargo flights, reports Tony Harrington.

“There is broad-based consensus amongst government and industry leaders around the world that the decarbonisation of the aviation sector and the achievement of net zero targets by airlines will require large-scale SAF production,” said CAAS Director-General Han Kok Juan. “This first successful uplift of blended SAF is an important milestone in Singapore’s journey towards sustainable aviation. It shows that the Singapore Changi Airport is SAF-ready.” The programme will also provide operational experience in adoption of SAF, which the CAAS is studying as part of a Sustainable Air Hub Blueprint to be published early next year.

Lee Wen Fen, SVP Corporate Planning for Singapore Airlines, said the start of the pilot was “an important milestone in the SIA Group’s decarbonisation journey and a clear demonstration of the company’s commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Working together with our partners, we will continue to support the adoption of SAF in Singapore.”

Geraldine Chin, Chairman and Managing Director of ExxonMobil Asia Pacific, added: “We are proud to supply certified SAF to Singapore Airlines in this inaugural pilot. ExxonMobil is bringing its deep capabilities in fuels manufacturing and logistics to help customers such as SIA achieve their net zero ambitions. We are focused on growing our lower emissions fuels business by leveraging technology and infrastructure, and continuing research in advanced fuels that could provide improved longer-term solutions.”

Renewable fuels producer Neste is preparing to start SAF production in Singapore from the first quarter of 2023, expanding an existing renewable diesel plant to additionally produce up to 1 million tonnes of SAF per year.  Sami Jauhiainen, the company’s VP Renewable Aviation for the Asia-Pacific region, said the collaboration through the Singapore programme “demonstrates the potential of SAF in reducing aviation’s emissions and helps accelerate its use in Singapore and globally.”

Under the SAF credit programme, 1,000 credits will be offered, one for every tonne of neat SAF to be delivered under the 12-month pilot. It is estimated that the initial SAF credits will reduce CO2 emissions from aircraft by 2,500 tonnes, equating to 2.5 tonnes per credit. The purchases are expected to help stimulate demand for the fuel and support the development of a SAF industry in Singapore.

The credits will be registered in a pilot project within the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB} Book & Claim System, designed to ensure that SAF credit transactions are conducted transparently and without double-counting of credit usage.

Initially, to help mitigate the carbon emissions created by their air travel, corporate customers and freight forwarders will be able to buy SAF credits directly from Singapore Airlines. Alternatively, freight forwarders will also be able to sell SAF credits to their cargo customers as a means of helping to recompense their own carbon emissions from business operations.  Then, from the fourth quarter of this year, all Singapore Airlines customers will be able to buy a mix of SAF credits and carbon offsets as part of the SIA Group Voluntary Carbon Offset Programme.

The airline group will also collaborate with Climate Impact X, a global exchange for carbon credits, to offer a combined portfolio of SAF and carbon credits to help meet corporate demand for SAF.

“As we progress with the SAF pilot in Singapore, we can now offer more opportunities for our corporate customers and travellers to mitigate their carbon emissions using SAF credits, which are registered and accounted for within the RSB Book and Claim System,” said SIA’s Lee Wen Fen. “This will help to accelerate and scale up the collective adoption of SAF.”

CAAS DG Han Kok Juan said: “The creation of a trusted and vibrant marketplace for the sale and purchase of SAF credits in Singapore will help support the adoption of SAF, which is essential for the decarbonisation of the aviation sector.”

Frederick Teo, CEO of GenZero, the investment platform wholly-owned by Temasek, welcomed the start of SAF use by SIA and Scoot on flights departing Changi Airport. “We have also been working with our project partners and the Climate Impact X global exchange to pilot innovative products for SAF credits,” he said. “Such credits represent an important way to crowd in financing from environmentally-conscious corporates and institutions to reduce the cost premium and encourage greater adoption of SAF to decarbonise global aviation. We look to the SAF credits arising from this project being available by the end of the year.”

Mikkel Larsen, CEO of Climate Impact X, said: “The current lack of incentives for the adoption of green fuels has meant that prices continue to remain high and economically unviable. SAF credits can help to spur adoption by enabling competitive price discovery and channelling finance towards projects that can drive the use of sustainable fuels at the scale necessary to support decarbonisation in the aviation sector.”

Arianna Baldo, Programme Director, RSB, said: “Singapore Airlines’ participation highlights how this innovative approach can add value for companies who are serious about decarbonising the aviation sector.”  

In neighbouring Malaysia, the national oil and gas company, Petronas Dagangan Berhad (PDB), and the nation’s largest air hub, Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), have pledged to jointly increase the long-term supply of sustainable fuel for airlines, following successful demonstrations on two recent flights by Malaysia Airlines, one from Amsterdam, the other from KLIA to Singapore with SAF produced by Neste.

To align with its commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050, and ahead of the 2027 mandatory phase of the CORSIA international carbon offsetting scheme, Petronas is evaluating developments of both greenfield and brownfield biorefineries as well as co-processing at existing facilities.

“Exploring the supply of SAF at KLIA is a natural progression for us with aviation fuel being one of our key products,” said Petronas CEO Azrul Osman Rani. Having supplied SAF for two commercial flights by Malaysia Airlines, he said Petronas had shown it had the capabilities and infrastructure to supply SAF to the airport “from now onwards to support the aviation industry’s sustainability agenda.”

Philip See, Group Chief Sustainability Officer of Malaysia Airlines Group, said the carrier would increase its use of SAF for flights in Malaysia as part of its commitment to achieving socio-economic development and reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050. “Moving forward,” he said, “we will look to make SAF the cleaner and more viable energy option for our regular flights by 2025.” 

To support the increased adoption of SAF, in line with Malaysia’s national commitment to a lower carbon future, a dedicated taskforce has been established by the National Aerospace Industry Coordinating Office and led by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Malaysia Airlines, Petronas and other government ministries are also participants.

Photo: Representatives from GenZero, Neste, Singapore Airlines, ExxonMobil and CAAS at the uplifting of blended SAF onto SIA flights at Changi

Shell, Accenture and American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) have joined forces to launch Avelia, a blockchain-powered digital sustainable aviation fuel book-and-claim platform for business travel. Offering around 1 million gallons of SAF, enough, they say, to power nearly 15,000 individual business traveller flights from London to New York, the partners claim Avelia is the largest book-and-claim pilot at launch. It has been developed by Shell and Accenture, with technical support from the Energy Web Foundation, and includes Amex GBT’s travel management services to aggregate global business demand for SAF, with the aim of stimulating SAF supply and helping the aviation industry’s pathway towards net zero emissions. Book-and-claim enables airlines and their business customers to simultaneously reduce emissions in their respective scopes. It allows travellers to pay for SAF and claim the benefits even if SAF is not available at their departure airport, and is instead fed into another aircraft at an airport where it is available. The partners say Avelia will ensure transparency and accountability by avoiding issues such as double-counting.

“SAF is a key enabler of decarbonisation in the aviation industry, and it’s available today. However, it’s currently scarce and costs more than conventional jet fuel,” said Jan Toschka, President, Shell Aviation. “Avelia will help trigger demand for SAF at scale, providing confidence to suppliers like us to further increase investment in production, and in turn helping to lower the price point for these fuels.”

The three launch partners are the platform’s first customers and welcomed other corporations to join it and their efforts “to drive industry change”. Shell has committed to purchasing the environmental attributes equivalent to 100,000 gallons of SAF over the pilot phase of the Avelia programme. It says the commitment will be increased “as soon as more SAF is available” in order to achieve its ambition to abate 45% of Shell’s corporate travel emissions through SAF by 2030.

Rachel Barton, Europe Strategy Lead at Accenture, said the vision for the Avelia platform was to bring airlines, corporates, cargo players and SAF suppliers together “in a trusted ecosystem that no individual company could build or access on its own.” She added: “Blockchain technology will be piloted to help ensure trust via data integrity, validate proof of ownership and enable transparent tracking of the environmental benefits of SAF for customers.”

Scalable co-investment models that allow companies to co-fund the cost of SAF are crucial to significantly scale SAF supply and use, say the partners. Once approved by industry bodies as an acceptable form of emissions reduction, say the partners, Avelia could enable airlines and companies who choose SAF to authenticate, record and report the associated emissions reduction benefits of SAF towards their voluntary ESG reporting.

“An industry-accepted carbon accounting mechanism, like book-and-claim, is key for such programmes to credibly grow,” they believe. “Avelia’s data security and credibility are key to reaching scientific and market consensus for ways to allocate SAF’s environmental attributes and help accelerate the decarbonisation of aviation.”

Paul Abbott, CEO of Amex GBT, said: “A truly viable route to decarbonising air travel is now open for business. We’re calling on all companies to join us and share the costs and benefits of SAF across the travel and aviation sectors. Airlines will gain access to the buying capacity of businesses, drawing from Amex GBT’s 19,000 customers around the world.”

The development of the Avelia book-and-claim platform was welcomed by Lauren Uppink Calderwood, Head of Aviation, Travel and Tourism at the World Economic Forum. “We look forward to integrating learnings from these efforts into our broader SAFc Framework programme. Sharing the price premium of SAF offers exciting potential to address the aviation industry’s supply-and-demand impasse over scaling SAF.”

Elena Schmidt, Executive Director of the standards body Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB), said book-and-claim had the potential to significantly increase market access to SAF. “It allows airlines and their customers to invest in SAF and purchase its environmental claims without needing to be tied to a production site,” she said. “As long as the value chain is based on a robust system, such as the one developed by RSB in collaboration with our multi-stakeholder community, the net environmental effect of SAF will be ensured. RSB supports innovative and collaborative partnerships that build a more sustainable environment and bio-based circular economy, and so applauds this new programme.

“We are delighted to welcome long-time RSB member Shell, along with Amex GBT and partners in the RSB book-and-claim development.”

Avelia uses a blockchain-powered book-and-claim method that follows the Smart Freight Centre and MIT’s Center for Transportation & Logistics SAF GHG accounting and insetting guidelines. It runs on Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform.

“Decarbonising hard to abate sectors like aviation will be essential to reaching a net zero future, and technology has a critical role to play in this transformation,” commented Elisabeth Brinton, Corporate VP Sustainability for Microsoft. “We’re proud to support Shell in this effort to expand the market for SAF.”

Photo: Shell

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

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Sustainability standards body RSB has entered a strategic collaboration with Air bp to launch a pilot book and claim system that allows the jet fuel supplier’s customers to purchase sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) without a physical connection with the supply site. Book and claim is particularly relevant to the general and business aviation market where fuel volumes are smaller and typically purchased over a wide number of locations, while current SAF volumes and existing supply points remain limited. The new programme will enable Air bp to deliver SAF into the supply chain at one airport location and ‘book’ the carbon reduction associated with it into a registry. Then the customer at another location can ‘claim’ those carbon reductions by purchasing their traditional jet fuel along with the benefit of the lifecycle carbon reductions that have been registered in that registry, reports Susan van Dyk. The system can be used with jet fuel purchases in France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, the UK and the US, subject to availability, with more locations possible in the future. According to RSB, the pilot scheme and concurrent stakeholder consultations to finalise a book and claim manual will ensure SAF transactions using the system are credible, traceable and avoid double counting. Certification will guarantee the net environmental effect is the same, no matter where SAF is purchased and used.

“Book and claim will be crucial,” said Elena Schmidt, interim Executive Director of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB), and “can help to bring the value of SAF to customers who would like to buy it or need the benefits from flying with SAF.”

A lack of availability, which is further limited to only a few locations, places SAF out of reach of many potential customers, explained Schmidt, and is a challenge to the expanded deployment of SAF. If SAF had to be physically available at every airport, additional costs would also be incurred in transportation, and associated emissions would increase. A book and claim system provides a solution to the logistical challenge of bringing SAF to market to allow customers to purchase SAF while decoupling environmental benefits from the physical product, which can be transferred separately via a dedicated registry. The principles of the system are illustrated below.

The pilot phase will run from Q3 2021 to Q1 2022 before the market launch of the certification system in Q2 2022 that will open it to wider market adoption. The first SAF transactions and pilot certificates will be issued during the pilot phase, and specifications for the post-pilot registry will be developed. In tandem, stakeholder consultations will take place and key issues will be addressed, including establishment of rules to prevent double-counting, recognition by voluntary GHG disclosure programmes such as the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), dealing with data confidentiality versus public availability, and alignment with other initiatives and recognition by other programmes. Lessons learnt and stakeholder comments will be integrated into the final certification requirements for the RSB Book & Claim Manual. Key mid-point results of the project will be presented during the 2021 RSB Annual Conference in November.

Air bp will be the first fuel supplier to register and make trades using the RSB book and claim solution. David Mosley from Air bp explained at a RSB seminar held in August that the company had received multiple requests for SAF from customers all over the world. He said book and claim will widen access of SAF to customers who are not located near current SAF production and several customers had requested a book and claim system, which had prompted the collaboration with RSB. “We hope this pilot will increase the appetite for SAF in the industry,” he added.

The minimum volume of book and claim SAF that can be purchased is 5,000USG/19,000 L/ 19m³/ 15MT. As well as giving a wider range of customers access to the benefits of SAF, book and claim will help Air bp to understand SAF demand. In the meantime, Air bp will continue to develop physical SAF supply chains based on demand.

The RSB book and claim is a chain of custody model in which the administrative record flow is not connected to the physical flow of material or product throughout the supply chain. The system includes a registry that guarantees full traceability and mitigates the risk of double counting. SAF suppliers, holding a registry account, will be able to record and trade SAF volumes in the registry, which will issue retirement certificates for airlines and corporate customers.

The system will allow aircraft operators to use the physical fuel in one location while claiming the environmental benefits in a different location to reduce their emissions. Alternatively, it enables the attribution of GHG emission reductions through SAF use to corporations to reduce their Scope 3 emissions.

Integration and alignment of the RSB system with other systems such as the World Economic Forum’s Clean Skies for Tomorrow (CST) SAF Certificate (SAFc) system for corporate travellers (see article) is a goal, and exploring how the RSB system will function under the European Commission’s recently released ReFuelEU proposal, which does not currently include a book and claim system, will be clarified in the near future.

The WEF CST SAFc framework is based on the same principle of separating SAF from its sustainability characteristics but has a different focus than the RSB book and claim system. It is an accounting tool that will allow SAF emissions reductions to be claimed by the traveller if they cover the higher cost of the fuel. It works within standard book and claim processes, allowing the actual SAF to be delivered to the airport nearest its production plant.

A rigorous SAF certificate system will be an essential component of other initiatives such as the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA), comprised of corporations with significant air travel and freight footprints (i.e. Scope 3 emissions) who want to achieve net zero emissions (see article).

A question arises on how these different systems will be integrated to avoid situations like double counting and whether a joint registry should be established for all these systems. According to RSB’s Schmidt, alignment between initiatives is important and will need to be addressed. RSB believes it can contribute to the development process of other initiatives such as SABA since it has the proven ability to develop robust auditing frameworks and the rulebook on book and claim systems using its multi-stakeholder platform. RSB says it can also provide information for developing a credible registry and retirement certificates while also ensuring additional environmental benefits through the use of such credits and avoiding double counting.

The pilot scheme between RSB and Air bp will provide lessons learned to feed into other initiatives, said Schmidt. However, she pointed out, the RSB book and claim and the SAFc systems have different aspirations, and the specific alignment of the systems must be clarified. There are a lot of details that still need to be figured out, she added.

Another area of uncertainty is how the RSB book and claim system will function within the EU as the proposed ReFuelEU Aviation regulation does not currently include provision for such a system. The ReFuelEU Aviation proposal, released as part of the European Commission’s ‘Fit for 55’ climate package, includes a mandate on fuel suppliers to include SAF in aviation fuel supplied at EU airports (see article). The proposed regulation indicates explicitly a book and claim system is not included at this stage, although it is not excluded as a future possibility, provided that it be governed by robust rules ensuring the environmental integrity of the system. While SAF would initially not need to be supplied at every airport, fuel suppliers must provide at least a 2% blend of SAF at every airport – a fraction of the 20% proposed mandate by this date – from 2030-2035. The balance of the mandate can be met by supplying a higher share of SAF at select airports. According to Schmidt, this indicates that some type of certificate trading is implied and that the RSB book and claim system can provide a solution.

During its August seminar, RSB also announced the establishment of the EcoTransport Programme, a sustainability certification that allows transport companies to get a credible third-party RSB certification for their sourcing of fuels that are in compliance with the strong sustainability criteria of the RSB. For example, explained Schmidt, an airline could sell a branded ‘ecofly’ ticket to customers as opposed to a regular ticket. This product would carry RSB certification and allow the use of the RSB trademark. While book and claim allows SAF certified by other sustainability schemes, the EcoTransport certification will comply with stricter sustainability criteria. It goes beyond GHG reductions to provide assurance on key customer concerns around deforestation, food security, labour rights and supply chains, backed by RSB standards. The programme will not be limited to the aviation sector but could also be used by cargo shipping, for example.

Top photo and infographic: Air bp

Susan van Dyk

GreenAir Correspondent

www.svdconsulting.ca

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A consortium led by sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) supplier SkyNRG, with LanzaTech as the technology provider, is to build Europe’s first LanzaJet alcohol-to-jet (AtJ) facility. The pre-commercial production plant will convert waste-based ethanol to 30,000 tonnes – about 37 million litres – of SAF per year and is expected to pave the way for extended commercial production capability across Europe and globally. Other partners in the FLITE (Fuel via Low Carbon Integrated Technology from Ethanol) consortium include Europe’s largest applied research organisation, Fraunhofer; energy and sustainability strategy consultancy E4tech; and standards body the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB). The project has received €20 million ($24m) in grant funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. The facility is expected to be fully operational in 2024.

“With the increasing demand for SAF in the future, there is a need to diversify SAF technologies and feedstock,” commented Maarten van Dijk, SkyNRG’s Managing Director. “This first-of-a-kind AtJ production in Europe will be an important step in the direction of making SAF more accessible and scalable, supporting net zero ambitions for the aviation industry.”

SkyNRG will act as the project’s coordinator and manage downstream supply chain development, with LanzaTech responsible for plant design, construction and operations. The waste-based ethanol will be sourced from multiple European producers, says the consortium.

“Bending the carbon curve requires collaboration and strong partnerships, something the FLITE consortium exemplifies, and we look forward to implementing LanzaJet technology in Europe,” said LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren. “This is an important enabler to expanding production of SAF and creating a path to a lower carbon future. We are grateful for the Horizon 2020 funding, which has made this project possible.”

Fraunhofer will oversee and distribute communications about the project and E4Tech will conduct the lifecycle assessment, while the RSB will provide guidance on sustainability certification of the facility.

“This project addresses two key challenges faced by the aviation sector today: rapid decarbonisation and doing so in a sustainable manner,” said RSB Executive Director Rolf Hogan. “It aims to scale the production of SAF in Europe and ensure it meets the most stringent sustainability standards. The RSB is proud to support partners to demonstrate sustainability performance and meet regional and global regulatory requirements of the EU Renewable Energy Directive and ICAO’s CORSIA.”

The consortium says it expects to name the location of the facility shortly and reports a number of airlines having shown interest in purchasing the SAF.

SkyNRG is already leading a project to build Europe’s first commercial SAF plant, named DSL-01, in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. It was due to be commissioned in 2022, although this is now unlikely in the light of present circumstances and the timeline is being reviewed and updated, says SkyNRG. When completed, the plant is set to produce 100,000 tonnes of SAF annually from waste and residue streams such as used cooking oil. The project is being supported by Shell, which has an option to purchase SAF from the facility, with KLM committed to purchasing 75,000 tonnes annually for 10 years.

Photo: SkyNRG

ICAO’s governing Council has adopted decisions on eligible carbon emissions units and sustainability certification schemes for eligible fuels that the UN agency says are the final building blocks for the CORSIA carbon offsetting mechanism for international aviation, which formally starts next month. At its 221st session, the Council accepted recommendations from its Technical Advisory Body (TAB) on a second set of eligible emissions units (EEUs) for use with offsetting requirements in the initial 2021-2023 pilot phase of CORSIA. This includes the approval of the Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART) to supply airlines with national and subnational (jurisdictional) forestry protection carbon credits. ART was the only new second-round applicant to be recommended for immediate eligibility to supply CORSIA EEUs. RSB and ISCC have been approved as sustainability certification schemes for CORSIA eligible fuels.

Commenting on the outcome of the session, Council President Salvatore Sciacchitano said: “ICAO set out a vision for carbon-neutral growth in international aviation and we have now seen that vision bear fruit. The Council’s decisions on eligible emissions units and sustainability certification schemes are the final steps necessary for CORSIA’s timely implementation.”

The approval of EEUs applies for use with offsetting requirements in the pilot phase and are subject to their respective scope of eligibility and eligibility dates. Issued units must be in respect of activities that started their first crediting period from 1 January 2016 and in respect of emissions reductions through 31 December 2020. It requires TAB recommendation and Council approval for an extension to the eligibility timeframes beyond the pilot phase.

TAB has now recommended and the Council approved seven emissions units programmes for eligibility across the two assessment cycles: American Carbon Registry (ACR), Architecture for REDD+ Transactions (ART), China GHG Voluntary Emission Reduction Program, the UN’s Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), Climate Action Reserve (CAR), Gold Standard and Verified Carbon Standard (Verra).

The approval by ICAO of Winrock’s ART and Verra’s Jurisdictional Nested REDD+ (JNR) represents the first acceptance of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) standards in a compliance market and is an important moment in the development of REDD+, said the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA).

A paper published by IETA calls for increased investment to prevent deforestation and for carbon markets to channel finance to all pathways that protect, restore and enhance the ecosystems that draw down and store carbon from the atmosphere.

“We need to scale up finance to avoid deforestation – especially tropical deforestation – in a way that contributes to sustainable development goals in forested regions,” said IETA CEO Dirk Forrister.

The paper points out that many countries have included REDD+ activities as part of their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement and that scenario modelling indicates dramatic reductions in deforestation are necessary to help achieve the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C temperature goal.

“Reducing deforestation and the conversion of natural habitats must be prioritised and recognised for its significant climate change mitigation potential in the short-to-medium term,” said Ellen Lourie, Senior Policy Associate at IETA. “If forests are allowed to be destroyed, it won’t be possible to recapture and store the lost carbon in new forests quickly enough to meet the Paris goals.”

Natural Climate Solutions (NCS) is becoming an increasingly large component of the voluntary market, says IETA, and in 2019 forestry and land use represented over 50% of the market by value. The private sector-led Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets is looking to increase the voluntary market by at least 15-fold by 2030, which, says IETA, represents an opportunity to direct significant new finance into forest protection.

Commenting on the ICAO outcome, Frances Seymour, Chair of the ART board, said: “We applaud the ICAO Council’s decision to approve jurisdictional REDD+ credits from ART. Protecting and restoring tropical forests can contribute up to one-third of the climate results the world needs over the next two decades, representing a massive mitigation opportunity that needs access to private sector capital at scale. ART was designed as a Paris Agreement-aligned, fit-for-purpose crediting programme that provides the assurance of integrity and safeguards that markets need.”

ART, which uses The REDD+ Environmental Excellency Standard (TREES), said its crediting ensures that jurisdictions meet standard market requirements for robust accounting, independent third-party verification and issuance of serialised units on a transparent registry. Despite the impact of the Covid pandemic and the subsequent adjustment to the CORSIA baseline that would delay the need for the airline industry to purchase offsets for compliance with the scheme, the ICAO approval had been interpreted as a ‘seal of quality’ by market participants, said ART. It stated that since the first crediting programmes were approved in March 2020, interest in purchasing CORSIA-eligible credits was increasing from outside the airline industry as a way to ensure they were investing in credible emission reductions.

“ART was established in anticipation of catalytic private sector interest in REDD+, especially in industries with hard-to-abate emissions,” said Mary Grady, Director of the ART Secretariat. “We hope ICAO’s approval provides the needed quality imprimatur for voluntary investments in REDD+ that extends beyond the global aviation sector.”

Mario Boccucci, Head of the UN-REDD Programme Secretariat, commended ICAO’s approval of jurisdictional and national REDD+ crediting programmes, adding: “The UN-REDD Programme is ready to continue to support REDD countries ensure high-quality and environmental integrity, and provide technical assistance to meet NDCs and raise ambition.”

NGO Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has helped to establish the Emergent Forest Finance Accelerator, a non-profit finance intermediary supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Norwegian government’s International Climate and Forest Initiative, to facilitate large-scale REDD+ transactions using the ART framework. It is collaborating with ART, Emergent, the UN REDD Programme and Forest Trends on the ‘Green Gigaton Challenge: Bringing REDD+ to Scale’ that seeks to set a demand signal that can scale up to at least a billion tons per year in emissions reductions transacted from high-integrity jurisdictional REDD+ by 2025.

“ICAO’s decision connects limits on aviation carbon pollution with investments in tropical forest protection and restoration, and is a win for nature, countries, companies and communities,” said Ruben Lubowski, Associate VP for Climate and Forests and Chief Natural Resource Economist at EDF. “After more than a decade of work on REDD+ frameworks under the UNFCCC and other fora, this marks the first time that REDD+ credits have been approved for use within a global compliance carbon market system.

“ICAO’s decision to include large, jurisdictional-scale REDD+ programmes in CORSIA sends a critical signal to companies and policymakers about the value of tropical forest protection to meet climate goals. It shows forest countries that there is a tangible demand for emissions reductions of the highest environmental and social integrity. Approval of these programmes will drive progress in reducing emissions at the scale needed to achieve the climate goals set by the aviation industry and in the Paris Agreement.”

The focus of the TAB and ICAO Council on ensuring programmes obtain from host countries written attestations that they will properly account for the transferred reductions should add to the efforts of Parties in ongoing climate talks to finalise clear guidance to ensure environmental integrity and prevent double-counting of emission reductions, said EDF. The NGO has produced analysis to show global climate cooperation through carbon markets can enable double the emissions reductions under current Paris pledges for the same cost as countries acting alone.

At its November meeting, the ICAO Council also approved two Sustainability Certification Schemes, the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) and the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC), as eligible to certify CORSIA Eligible Fuels, based on recommendations by ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP). The use of such fuels enables aeroplane operators to reduce their CORSIA offsetting requirements from the use of low-carbon and sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) that must be certified by one of the two organisations, although there is a degree of mutual recognition between them. Such fuels must meet the CORSIA Sustainability Criteria, including to achieve net GHG emission reductions of at least 10% compared to the baseline lifecycle emission values for conventional aviation fuel and not be made from biomass obtained from land with high carbon stock.

RSB has developed its own CORSIA Standard which it said goes above and beyond the ICAO scheme’s requirements to ensure that SAF achieves at least 50% GHG reductions on its core lifecycle analysis and a minimum 10% when including CORSIA’s Induced Land Use Change values (ILUC). In addition, it adds, RSB-certified SAF enables further claims around zero deforestation, environmental protection, food security and human rights, as specified in the RSB Principles and Criteria.

RSB is supported and endorsed by many in the aviation industry and also by environmental NGO coalition group ICSA. Airline members of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Users Group (SAFUG), representing around a third of global commercial aviation fuel consumption, have committed to developing and using fuels consistent with RSB’s sustainability requirements. A third of RSB’s members are from the aviation sector. RSB certificate holders include Gevo, Nuseed, SkyNRG and World Energy, with further commitments to RSB certification from Velocys, LanzaTech and LanzaJet. KLM has committed to sourcing RSB-certified SAF.

Renewable jet producer Neste is also supporting RSB certification standards. “We cordially congratulate RSB for receiving ICAO recognition for its standard and we look forward to continuing the close collaboration,” said the Finnish company’s VP Business Development, Renewable Aviation, Sami Jauhiainen.

“A clear pathway is now available for industry leaders to demonstrate their commitment to sustainability goes above and beyond the legal requirements of CORSIA to also include a full range of social and environmental impacts as well,” commented Rolf Hogan, RSB’s Executive Director, on the ICAO approval. “We look forward to working with these pioneers to implement this new RSB CORSIA Standard to help transform the industry, and the world.”

Added Pedro Piris-Cabezas, Director of Sustainable International Transport and Lead Senior Economist at EDF: “ICAO Council’s approval of RSB is both an outstanding achievement for RSB and a major milestone for CORSIA, which completes CORSIA’s SAF framework. RSB’s CORSIA standard also represents a paradigm shift, moving from RSB’s original focus on sustainable biofuel volumes to a new focus on emissions reductions from the use of SAF for carbon markets.”

ISCC has also expanded the sustainability requirements for CORSIA eligible fuels with additional criteria that aims to protect water, soil, air, biodiversity and workers’ and land rights. “ISCC covers the complete set of CORSIA requirements, allowing economic operators at every point in a fuel’s supply chain to show their compliance with the CORSIA scheme by becoming ISCC CORSIA certified,” said the Germany-based certification body.

Commenting on the Council outcome on eligible units and sustainability certification schemes, ICAO Secretary General Dr Fang Liu said: “The steps that ICAO has taken to address climate change go hand-in-hand with our efforts to promote the sustainable growth and long-term prosperity of international aviation. CORSIA’s implementation elements are ready, and States and airlines are ready to make us of them.”

ICAO has launched a series of videos on ‘Navigating CORSIA’, which are guides to the scheme’s design and implementation.