Accelerating innovative and scalable technology pathways to enable sustainable aviation
This challenge calls for innovative solutions to decarbonize aviation & accelerate novel technology pathways, including sustainable fuels, propulsion technologies & value chain innovations like feedstock, engineering, infrastructure & market development.
The need for innovation in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and alternative propulsion technologies is critical to decarbonize the aviation sector. The International Energy Agency has identified that 50% of emissions reductions required for achieving net-zero will come from technologies that are not yet available or at the needed scale, especially in hard-to-abate industrial sectors such as aviation.
Aviation requires high energy density fuel for flight propulsion. Low-carbon alternatives to fossil fuels have been identified as a possible pathway to decarbonize the aviation industry in the short term but cost-effective substitutes for fossil fuel-derived jet fuel are still limited. Different sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) classes are still costlier, face high barriers to scale or are in nascent stages.
