Final approval given | 1.2% of aviation fuel in EU must be derived from green hydrogen by 2030
The proportion of synthetic aviation fuels will be regularly increased until it reaches a 35% share from 2050
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This EU directive aims to significantly reduce greenhouse emissions from planes by 2050 by forcing flights departing EU airports to use increasing quantities of bio-based sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) and green hydrogen-based synthetic e-fuels from 2025.
This means that aviation fuel in Europe would need to include a 2% blend of bio-SAF from 2025, rising to 6% in 2030, with increases every five years until the level reaches 70% in 2050.
The 1.2% figure is for the average share between 1 January 2030 and 31 December 2031, with a minimum share of 0.7% in each of the two specific years.
Similarly, the 2% figure represents an average share for the three-year period, but a minimum share of 1.2% per year is allowed in 2032 and 2033, although this rises to a minimum 2% share in 2034.
From 1 January 2035, each year must have a minimum share of 5% synthetic aviation fuel, rising to 10% from 1 January 2040, 15% from 1 January 2045 and 35% from 1 January 2050.
Aviation fuel suppliers and aircraft operators not meeting the criteria will be fined by yet-to-be-designated “competent authorities” in member states — with the size of the financial penalties to be set in a future report by the European Commission, due to be presented to member states by 1 January 2027 (and every four years thereafter).
“In order to ensure a level playing field of the aviation internal market and the adherence to the climate ambitions of the [European] Union, this Regulation should introduce effective, proportionate and dissuasive penalties on aviation fuel suppliers and aircraft operators in case of non-compliance,” the directive explains.
“The level of the penalties needs to be proportionate to the environmental damage and to the damage created on the level-playing field of the internal market inflicted by the non-compliance.
“When imposing fines and other penalties, the authorities should take into account the evolution of the price of aviation fuel and SAF in the reporting year and may also take into account the degree of non-compliance, for example where there are repeated infringements.”
The document also points out that the gradual decarbonisation of the EU’s aviation industry “should be supported through incentives that reflect the environmental benefit of SAF and make them more competitive for aircraft operators”.
These incentives could be funded, at least in part, by the fines.
“Using revenues generated from the fines, or the equivalent in the financial value of those revenues, to support research and innovation projects in the field of SAF, the production of SAF or mechanisms allowing the price differences between SAF and conventional aviation fuels to be bridged would contribute to the achievement of that objective,” says the directive.