International Civil Aviation Day

  The research behing the 2025 Global Aviation Sustainability Outlook t shows that industry stakeholders and governments are continuing to make significant progress towards decarbonization. Sentiment around the ability of the sector to meet its 2030 vision remains positive, while a huge amount of resources have been mobilized towards the transition. However, market developments and the evolving views of aviation executives interviewed for this report highlight a number of challenges that have an impact on climate action. Some of these risks are specific to the aviation sector, while others are broader economic and geopolitical constraints. For aviation professionals involved in decarbonizing the sector, tackling some of these challenges while looking to grow sustainably can lead to trade-offs, while paving the way to innovation and new opportunities. These include artificial intelligence – a topic that has not featured heavily in this white paper but which is expected to attract ...

  Traceability and sustainability criteria for SAF feedstocks. As global trades of feedstocks and fuels flourish and aviation’s reliance on SAF as a means to get to net zero increases, scrutiny of the sustainability credentials of these commodities is expected to intensify. Land-use changes, deforestation, poor agricultural practices, food security and biodiversity impacts are some of the potential concerns that have, in Europe at least, prompted investigations into the integrity of biofuel imports. This in turn has led to regulatory restrictions or bans on first-generation fuels derived from food crops, as well as caps on biofuels made from used cooking oil and animal fats. The risk of a supply-constrained scenario could exert positive pressure on the development of power-to-liquid or alternative SAF production pathways (e.g. gasification and Fischer-Tropsch). Equally, amid these concerns, some countries are moving towards improving transparency and research in this area. In 2024,...

  The World Economic Forum’s survey of aviation executives also asked respondents to rank wider risks, beyond immediate aviation-specific sustainability concerns, that are affecting progress on decarbonizing the sector. Challenges identified include risks arising from policy and geopolitics, economics, technology and social issues (see Figure 11).   According to the executives consulted, geopolitics tops the list of non-sustainability challenges affecting aviation decarbonization progress. The Forum’s Global Risks Report 2025 also highlights geopolitics as one of the key concerns for the international community. The previous chapter highlights risks and challenges specific to the aviation sector and SAF feedstocks. This report addresses wider dynamics that can affect relationships and negotiations between countries, including at COP30 and the ICAO General Assembly later this year, as well as trade flows and thus aviation and cargo movements. At the time of writing in early 202...

  Alignment of SAF policy across regions and the future of SAF subsidies 2.2 Policy and geopolitical challenges Asia Pacific In 2024, Asia Pacific emerged as a hot SAF market, with an increasing number of governments introducing supporting policies (see Figure 8). Singapore introduced a new levy on air tickets to support SAF expansion; Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and South Korea announced or explored plans to introduce SAF mandates; and Australia made funding available for low-carbon fuel projects as part of its $1.1 billion innovation fund China is likely to unveil more detail on its rumoured SAF policy in 2025. The country gradually released the first components of its SAF policy in 2024, when it launched a new sustainability certification body in Chengdu and a consultation on domestic fuel standards, while piloting SAF usage with Air China, China Eastern and China Southern in September 2024. In Hong Kong SAR, a policy white paper released by the Hong Kong SAF Coalition ...

  The Forum’s survey of aviation executives asked them to rank the immediate risks directly affecting progress on aviation decarbonization , according to their impact. Three main groups of challenges were identified around technology, policy. Technology challenges Availability and cost of SAF Executives highlighted the availability and cost of SAF as the biggest challenge affecting progress on decarbonizing aviation during 2025. Many airlines typically highlight SAF’s availability and price as the key obstacles preventing them from signing firm, long-term offtake agreements; equally, investors view such offtake agreements as a “must have” before providing SAF plants with the capital they need to develop. The challenge is that the airline business is known for its small margins – and the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant losses and bankruptcy risks that threatened the growth of the sector and exacerbated its traditionally low creditworthiness. ICAO offers an online tracker ...