T&E: ‘Only 10 out of 77 airlines commit to green fuels’

According to a new ranking by Transport & Environment (T&E), only 10 out of 77 airlines are making noteworthy efforts to switch to sustainable alternatives to fossil kerosene.

The remaining 67 are either buying too few sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), the wrong kind of SAFs, or are not considering SAFs at all in their decarbonization plans. However, part of the blame lies with oil companies’ failure to invest in the transition to green kerosene.

The top three airlines in the ranking are Air France-KLM, United Airlines, and Norwegian. They receive high points for committing to e-kerosene or advanced and waste biofuels. Other airlines are often doing too little—or nothing at all—when it comes to SAV, raising serious questions about their ability to address their climate impact.

Wrong type of SAV

Currently, most airlines ranked are using the wrong type of SAF. E-kerosene, made from renewable electricity, is the most sustainable and scalable type of SAF. In contrast, SAF derived from biomass varies greatly in sustainability and scalability. SAFs made from food or feed crops are not sustainable at all.

E-kerosene makes up less than 10% of airlines’ SAF agreements today, while unsustainable crop-based biofuels account for more than 30%. T&E warns that airlines should do more to push fuel producers to prioritize the right types of feedstocks.

‘Send the right signal’

Francesco Catte, SAF manager at T&E, warns: “Too few airlines are committing to sustainable fuels. […] Airlines must put their fist on the table to change this. They need to send the right signal to fuel suppliers that what is being sold to them will not make their flights green. Otherwise, they can wave goodbye to their net-zero goals.”

Traditional oil producers are not investing enough in the transition to green fuels. The T&E analysis discovered that large players like Eni, TotalEnergies, Shell, BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Sinopec, and Saudi Aramco will produce only around 3 Mt of SAF per year by 2030—less than 3% of their current jet fuel output. Worse still, virtually none of their investments in SAFs are in e-kerosene.

‘Adequate funding and regulatory measures’

“Oil companies are the missing piece of the puzzle in the green fuels ecosystem,” Catte continues. “They have gone unnoticed so far, but their reluctance to invest in SAFs is hijacking the whole sector’s transition. Regulators must get tougher and ensure oil majors invest in SAFs while developing a European industrial strategy for e-kerosene to support this nascent industry with adequate funding and regulatory measures.”

SAF uptake worldwide is very low. In 2023, the airlines in the ranking consumed more than 1.6 billion barrels of fossil kerosene, compared to only 2.6 million barrels of SAF—less than 0.15% of total jet fuel consumption.

Priority investment

Given the small amounts of SAF being purchased, reducing emissions via SAF will not compensate for the sector’s emissions growth. For the 77 airlines ranked in the study, the projected volumes of SAF will only lead to a 0.9% CO₂eq emissions reduction in 2030.

T&E recommends that the EU includes e-fuels as a priority investment in its upcoming Clean Industrial Deal. In parallel, oil companies should engage in the e-kerosene market by developing projects themselves or by investing in e-fuel plants for aviation to foster its scale-up instead of continuing to perpetuate reliance on fossil fuels.