Business aviation groups have agreed a set of policy principles to guide long-term carbon emissions reductions ahead of an upcoming United Nations Aviation Forum.
The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) and other industry groups such as the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) and European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) have developed four guiding principles for the 41st International Civil Aviation (ICAO) Triennial Assembly taking place this week. ICAO, a United Nations agency, convenes its 193 member states every three years to set worldwide aviation policy, with the current assembly running from today until October 7th.
The four guiding principles are to:
- Foster investments that scale the production, availability and use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), including tax credits
- Promote the use of industry initiatives such as SAF book-and-claim, especially at small airports where business aviation is prevalent
- Support innovations such as electric powered aircraft that can greatly cut C02 emissions
- Encourage cooperative programmes between member states to spread the use of best practices proven to increase business aviation sustainability.
The four guidelines are meant to provide a roadmap to ensure the sector continues to build on its sustainability and help achieve net-zero C02 emissions by 2050, as put forward by the Business Aviation Commitment on Climate Change.
A working paper presented by the global aviation industry to ICAO in July estimated that 53%-71% of aviation decarbonisation will need to be delivered through a shift to SAF. It said that significant global SAF production is “achievable with the right policy support and market signals” and could “generate or sustain up to 14m million jobs”.
Kurt Edwards, director, IBAC said: “We know what our industry needs to accomplish to reach our goal of net-zero emissions and we have the tools available to do so. Now is the time to put in place the appropriate policies for this vision to become a reality.”
In recent months there has been a big push towards the development and use of SAF in the sector. In July, AEG Fuels launched a digital network that allows aircraft operators to access SAF at more than 20 locations worldwide. A month later, Embraer partnered with Brazilian energy company Raízen to improve the supply of SAF in the country. This month, blockchain technology has been backed by Directional Aviation, Alder Fuels, 4Air and Flexjet to provide transparency about the production of SAF and document its compliance with regulatory programmes and carbon reduction milestones.
