Sustainable aviation fuels face headwinds

Limited financing and competition for feedstocks among challenges for fuel, which can be dropped in without need for retrofits, aviation sector executives say

Sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) have potential as an immediate solution to help the aviation sector decarbonise more quickly, but producers needs to overcome barriers such as limited financing, scaling up production projects and competition for feedstocks. Aviation is regarded as one of the most difficult sectors from which to reduce CO₂ emissions as flying is energy-intensive and no cost-competitive technological option is available to reduce emissions at scale. Zero-emission flight technologies such as battery-electric and hydrogen-fuelled aircraft are in the early stages of development but are decades away from commercialisation and may have a limited range. SAF is one of the short-term