Airlines warn green fuel goals at risk as supply falls short

By Joanna Plucinska and Olivia Le Poidevin

GENEVA, Dec 9 (Reuters) – The global airline industry is likely to miss its targets for green jet fuel use in the coming years, the International Air ‍Transport Association said on Tuesday, blaming fuel producers and regulators for the “disappointing” progress.

Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), made largely from waste or used cooking oil, can cut emissions significantly compared with traditional jet fuel. However, it remains two to five times more expensive than conventional fuel.

IATA expects 2.4 million metric tons of SAF to ‌be available in 2026, covering just 0.8% of total ‌fuel consumption. That means the growth of the SAF sector has slowed – production growth doubled between 2024 and 2025, but will likely only grew by 0.5 million metric tons between 2025 and 2026, IATA said.

The wider aviation sector committed ​in 2021 to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, relying heavily on a gradual switch to SAF.

“We’re not seeing SAF produced in the volumes ‍we had hoped for and had expected. ​That is disappointing,” the trade group’s director general Willie Walsh ​told journalists. He had previously warned that the 2050 net zero goal ‍could be at risk.

Sustainable aviation fuel accounts for about 0.3% of the world’s jet fuel use and was projected to reach only 0.7% by 2025, according to IATA data. Experts say production needs to grow quickly for the sector to meet its emissions goals.

Airlines have long said that ‍they are willing to buy all of the SAF available, but accuse jet fuel producers of artificially inflating prices and failing to produce enough of ‍the greener fuel.

“It’s not ‍an issue of price, it’s an issue of availability, ​and they’re just not able to get their hands ​on ⁠the SAF that they require to fulfil the ambition ‌that they expressed,” Walsh said.

IATA’s Chief Economist Marie Owens Thomsen added that regulatory mandates introduced by the European Union and Britain have encouraged fuel producers to raise prices on SAF even further, with Walsh adding that the practice is synonymous with price gouging.

(Reporting by Joanna Plucinska and Olivia Le Poidevin in Geneva; Editing ⁠by Louise Heavens)