IATA has launched its Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Registry to record SAF transactions in a standardised and transparent way and help enable a global market for SAF and support efforts to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Participation in the SAF Registry will be free until April 2027, after which it will be operated on a cost-recovery basis. There are over 30 early users already in the process of onboarding and ready to use the system.
The Registry is now under the management of the IATA-founded Civil Aviation Decarbonization Organization (CADO).
IATA said the SAF Registry has been designed to ensure that the environmental benefits of SAF can be tracked as they move across the SAF value chain and enable the claiming of these against regulatory obligations and voluntary schemes by airlines and corporate customers.
The registry helps solve the challenge of limited SAF supply by connecting airlines with SAF producers and suppliers, regardless of their geographical location.
In addition, the registry gives airlines’ corporate customers access to in-sector emissions reductions and capitalises on firms’ capacity to co-finance the cost of decarbonisation.
According to IATA, the SAF Registry is technology and feedstock-neutral, favouring the emergence of diverse SAF production streams across the world.
It will be able to accommodate specific regulations while favouring global harmonisation, said IATA. Interoperability with other registries is an important feature of the registry, supporting competition and open markets.
The registry was developed in consultation with airlines, government authorities, OEMs, fuel producers and suppliers, and corporate travel management companies.
IATA said in March that it had established CADO specifically to manage the registry. CADO is incorporated as a not-for-profit organization in Canada with its headquarters in Montreal. IATA will provide ongoing technical support and operations to CADO.
Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s senior vice president sustainability and chief economist, said: “Aviation’s decarbonisation is a team effort. In releasing the SAF Registry to CADO for launch, we have put in place a critical platform for the benefit of all stakeholders. It ensures that all airlines in the world have access to SAF and that their SAF purchases can be claimed against any climate-related obligations in this domain.
”The registry will record the environmental attributes of SAF purchases in an immutable way, safeguarding against double counting. Airlines, their corporate customers, fuel producers, regulatory bodies, and all related organizations will be able to record and account for their SAF transactions in a global market for SAF.
”While this is of fundamental importance and a historically momentous advance, it is but one step along the way to a mature, transparent, and liquid global SAF market. The registry cannot produce miracles on its own, but without it, no miracles can be produced.”
