The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) has announced its partnership with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on its Assistance, Capacity-Building, and Training for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (ICAO ACT-SAF) initiative.
Kurt Edwards, Director General of IBAC, signed an ACT-SAF partnership agreement with ICAO Secretary General Juan Carlos Salazar on March 29. Also present were Jane Hupe, ICAO's Deputy Director, Environment, and Secretary of the ICAO Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection, and Captain Claude Hurley, IBAC's Director of Environment and Flight Operations.
"The business aviation sector is known for its innovation. We look forward to working with ICAO and other ACT-SAF participants to expand the development and use of SAF - a proven and cutting-edge technology - in greater quantities for use by all operators worldwide," Edwards said.
ICAO's ACT-SAF program is designed to create opportunities for States to deploy their full potential in SAF development and deployment, in line with the ICAO "No Country Left Behind" initiative and the ICAO Vision 2050 for SAF.
For its part, ICAO announced that an informational session on the role of SAF was held on March 28, which also addressed the challenges and opportunities of decarbonizing international civil aviation.
Financial stakeholders who attended included representatives from the African Development Bank, the Emirates Development Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the European Investment Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the World Bank.
The informational session and Council discussions focused on the actions and outcomes needed now to achieve the joint objective of the public and private sectors of a carbon-neutral international air transport (NetZero) by 2050.
ICAO and the governments cooperating through it have a critical role to play in encouraging and accelerating the increase of SAF production capacities worldwide, and the urgently needed development of harmonized international regulatory frameworks for SAF would play a key role in establishing the level and reliable playing field that investors need now.
ICAO Council members thanked the opportunity to exchange views with industry and financial stakeholders, and further ICAO debates on SAF and NetZero financing are expected to take place in the coming months in preparation for the Third Conference on Aviation and Alternative Fuels (CAAF/3) to be held in November.
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