Global airlines could miss sustainable fuel targets, IATA’s Walsh says

By Joanna Plucinska and Emma Farge

GENEVA (Reuters) – The aviation industry isn’t moving fast enough to reach its targets for producing and using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), the head of airline trade body IATA Willie Walsh said on Tuesday, as it aims for net zero emissions by 2050.

“We’re not making as much progress as we’d hoped for and we’re certainly not making as much progress as we need,” Walsh said at an IATA media day in Geneva.

As it stands, sustainable aviation fuel makes up only around 1% of the world’s jet fuel usage, with experts saying the production rate of the green fuel needs to grow quickly for the sector to achieve its emissions goals.

Walsh pointed to a lack of biorefineries under construction which could produce the green jet fuel, many of which require extensive capital expenditure to get built.

He said Europe was lagging behind the United States when it came to crafting incentives that could help boost that expenditure.

The 2022 U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) contains hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies for clean energy and is billed as outgoing President Joe Biden’s signature law to combat climate change.

Walsh said it was unclear what the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump would do regarding the IRA and how it would impact ongoing SAF production.

“There was quite a lot of progress in the first Trump administration in this area as well. So I don’t think this is a black and white issue,” he told reporters.