The aviation industry’s trade group believes that in order to reach aggressive sustainability standards, oil firms should be subject to taxes and should be encouraged to use renewable energy sources.
According to Dr. Marie Owens Thomsen, senior vice president for sustainability and chief economist at the International Air Transport Association (IATA), “it’s too easy to make money by drilling for oil today.”
“It’s very difficult to make money in SAF [sustainable aviation fuel],” she stated during a speech at the World Air Transport Summit held in Dubai. Governments must make investing in fossil fuels less alluring.
The organization representing airlines worldwide issued a warning on Tuesday, stating that reaching a five percent sustainable fuel target by 2030 is “very ambitious,” if not unachievable.
The head of the International Air Transport Association stated that investments would need to be made in sites all over the world in order to produce adequate sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
“We won’t pledge to accomplish something we don’t think is feasible,” Director General Willie Walsh declared at the annual meetings held in Dubai.
“In my opinion, 5% SAF by 2030 is quite ambitious. In my opinion, it will be met, if not exceeded, in several regions of the world.
“But when we look at where SAF is being produced and where investments are being made, it’s very clear to us it won’t be achieved in every part of the world.”
Walsh asserted that IATA’s objective to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050 was still on course.
The International Civil Aviation Organization, a United Nations organization, established the five percent SAF target at the conclusion of the previous year.
“It wasn’t that IATA pushed for a five percent target in 2030,” Walsh stated. He said, “Obviously, we’ll do everything we can to deliver as much as possible.”
IATA announced on Sunday that this year’s SAF output would quadruple to 1.9 billion liters (1.5 million tonnes), or 0.53 percent of the fuel required by aircraft overall.
The aviation sector produces about three percent of the world’s CO2 emissions, and it primarily looks to SAF to help it achieve its target of net zero emissions by the middle of the century.
