The EU’s sustainable aviation fuels initiative: T&E’s recommendations

Aircraft rely exclusively on fossil jet fuel to operate, which explains why growing passenger numbers have rapidly increased emissions from the sector. Carbon pricing and modal shift are important, but it’s only when we swap fossil jet fuel for truly sustainable advanced fuels (SAFs) that emissions from flying will fall.

Such a switch can address both CO₂ and non-CO₂ effects, but to differing degrees. To date, no effective measures have been put in place at European level to achieve such a switch. The ReFuelEU Regulation proposal changes that. T&E assesses what is good and what is not so, to give recommendations on how it can be improved to deliver on its promise of decarbonising the sector.