Carbon offsets and jet fuel alternatives for international aviation

The paper evaluates the feasibility of the International Civil Aviation Organization's (ICAO) goal for carbon-neutral growth from 2020 onward. It finds that high-integrity carbon offsets and sustainable biofuels can provide a significant portion of the required emission reductions, suggesting that ICAO can maintain high environmental and sustainable development standards without compromising its goals.

• Carbon offsets from project types with high confidence in environmental integrity and sustainable development goals could provide 3.0 gigatons (Gt) CO2e in emission reductions, covering 70–90% of ICAO's projected demand of 3.3–4.5 Gt CO2e for 2020–2035. Expanding eligibility to medium-confidence projects increases supply to 4.6 Gt CO2e, and neutral development impact projects increase it to 5.1 Gt CO2e, while jurisdiction-scale REDD+ programmes could add 2.4 Gt CO2e.
• The use of biofuels produced with minimal land use change impacts and strong sustainability certification is estimated to avoid 0.1–0.3 Gt CO2e of emissions, though this supply is subject to higher uncertainties.
• International aviation emissions were estimated at 490.4 million metric tons of CO2 in 2013 (1.5% of global fossil fuel combustion emissions) and are projected to rise to 682–755 tons by 2020 and 1223–1376 tons by 2035.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2016). Carbon offsets and jet fuel alternatives for international aviation. https://www.sei.org/publications/carbon-offsets-aviation/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Carbon offsets and jet fuel alternatives for international aviation. 2016. https://www.sei.org/publications/carbon-offsets-aviation/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Carbon offsets and jet fuel alternatives for international aviation |date=3 June 2016 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/carbon-offsets-aviation/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2016carbon, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Carbon offsets and jet fuel alternatives for international aviation}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2016}, month = jun, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/carbon-offsets-aviation/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }