Joint Policy Proposal to Accelerate the Deployment of Sustainable Aviation Fuels in Europe

The World Economic Forum's Clean Skies for Tomorrow initiative argues that SAF is indispensable for decarbonizing aviation, particularly long-haul flights, but is currently hindered by a significant price gap compared to fossil fuels. The proposal recommends a four-pillar strategy: supporting innovation in lignocellulosic and power-to-liquid pathways, implementing government-guaranteed price floors, de-risking investment in first-of-a-kind production facilities, and introducing a SAF blending mandate for the European Economic Area by 2025. The document emphasizes that while waste-oil based fuels (HEFA) can provide short-term growth, long-term scalability depends on advanced feedstocks and synthetic fuels.

• Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) is essential for reaching carbon neutrality in aviation, especially for long-haul flights, because it can be blended with conventional jet fuel without requiring major new infrastructure. However, commercial production in the EU is currently only approximately 0.05% of total jet fuel consumption.
• The primary barrier to SAF adoption is a 'chicken and egg' problem where high price premiums (100%-200% higher than kerosene for the most available technologies) suppress demand, which in turn prevents the production scale-up needed to lower costs.
• The proposal recommends four priority policy pillars: 1) funding innovation for lignocellulosic/biowaste and power-to-liquid pathways; 2) establishing government-guaranteed price floors; 3) de-risking investment in first-of-a-kind production plants via public financial support; and 4) announcing a SAF blending mandate in 2021 to be enforced by 2025.
• Different SAF pathways offer varying scalability and sustainability: HEFA (waste oils/fats) is the most mature but limited by feedstock availability; lignocellulosic and biowaste fuels are more abundant but require technological scaling; and power-to-liquid (synthetic) fuels are the most scalable long-term option but currently prohibitively expensive.
• The document argues that crop-based biofuels should be strictly limited to avoid indirect land-use change (ILUC) and competition with food production, suggesting they only be used if derived from double cropping or unused degraded land.
• Beyond fuels, the document identifies other critical decarbonization levers for European aviation, including the completion of the Single European Skies programme to reduce environmental impact by 12%, accelerating fleet renewal, and developing electric or hydrogen propulsion for short-to-medium haul flights.

APA

World Economic Forum (2020). Joint Policy Proposal to Accelerate the Deployment of Sustainable Aviation Fuels in Europe. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_CST_Policy_European_Commission_SAF_2020.pdf

Chicago

World Economic Forum. Joint Policy Proposal to Accelerate the Deployment of Sustainable Aviation Fuels in Europe. 2020. http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_CST_Policy_European_Commission_SAF_2020.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=World Economic Forum |title=Joint Policy Proposal to Accelerate the Deployment of Sustainable Aviation Fuels in Europe |date=October 2020 |url=http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_CST_Policy_European_Commission_SAF_2020.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{worldeconomicforum2020joint, author = {{World Economic Forum}}, title = {{Joint Policy Proposal to Accelerate the Deployment of Sustainable Aviation Fuels in Europe}}, institution = {World Economic Forum}, year = {2020}, month = oct, url = {http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_CST_Policy_European_Commission_SAF_2020.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }