Sustainable Aviation Fuel ‘Monitoring System’

Grant Agreement EASA.2015.FC21

Sustainable Aviation Fuel ‘Monitoring System’Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) are considered to be a critical element in the basket of measures to mitigate aviation’s contribution to climate change. In the development of the recent EASA European Aviation Environmental Report (EAER) published in January 2019, it was identified that there was a lack of information at the EU level on the supply and use of SAF within Europe. 

In response to this gap in knowledge, EASA launched a study to identify a cost effective, robust data stream to monitor the use and supply of SAF, as well as the associated emissions reductions.  This included identifying and recommending performance indicators (PI) related to the use of SAF in Europe, as well as the associated aviation CO2 emissions reductions achieved.  

The study followed five steps:

  1. Identification of possible performance indicators by reviewing the current ‘state of the art’ SAF indicators and consultation with key stakeholders.
     
  2. Identification of regulatory reporting requirements, and other possible sources of datasets and information streams in the European context, with the potential to cover the data needs of the proposed performance indicators.
     
  3. Examination of sustainability requirements applicable to SAF, and potential savings in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions compared to fossil-based fuels. 
     
  4. Review of SAF use today and future expectations for SAF use within Europe.
     
  5. Definition of a future monitoring and reporting process on SAF use in Europe and related recommendations to implement it.

The results will be used as a basis for subsequent work to include SAF performance indicators in future EAERs, which will provide insight into the market penetration of SAF over time in order to assess the success of policy measures to incentivise uptake.