Beating the bottlenecks

The aviation industry has been under mounting pressure to tackle its carbon footprint. Now, a new study has delivered a vital message: the pathway to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 is achievable – but only with urgent and coordinated global action.
The report, published by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in collaboration with Worley Consulting, concludes that there is enough sustainable feedstock to produce the volumes of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) needed to decarbonise the industry over the next 25 years.
Crucially, all the feedstocks considered in the study meet strict sustainability standards, meaning they would not lead to land-use changes or compete with food production.
“We now have unequivocal evidence that if SAF production is prioritised, then feedstock availability is not a barrier in the industry’s path to decarbonisation,” said Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general. “However, this will only be accomplished with a major acceleration of the SAF industry’s growth. We need shovels in the ground now.”

The scale of the challenge

To hit its net-zero target, the...