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

The aviation industry is not 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 0.3% of the world's jet fuel usage and is projected to only account for 0.7% by 2025, according to IATA data, with experts saying the production rate of the green fuel needs to grow quickly for the sector to achieve its emissions goals. An IATA study presented on Tuesday showed that global production of green jet fuel in 2024 was only 1 metric ton, lower than IATA's projection a year ago that it would be 1.5 tons. 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. IATA said it would launch a new project to better track global SAF initiatives next year in an effort to provide more transparency for the sector's progress.<br/>