Who wants to fly without the large carbon footprint that air travel has on our shared environment? I do! Today we need to actively limit air travel -or change it significantly- to help reduce this direct atmospheric input, purchasing carbon credits won’t provide equal savings.

The good news is we already have a way to power the world’s air travel fleets that can reduce emissions by 80%, it just needs to be implemented and not used for greenwashing campaigns. Currently airlines are only using SAF in tiny amounts yet they proudly share its potential benefits. There are also obstacles and lobbying efforts from the fossil fuel based aviation fuel providers blocking progress.

Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) is made from waste created by agricultural feedstock or municipal waste streams- not only does it reduce the pollution in the atmosphere but also in the landfill. Even if the reduction of emissions was less than 80% this alternative sounds quite promising however… “SAF production and use in the U.S. has increased in recent years; this fuel is now used by airlines at two major commercial airports in California. While U.S. production reached 15.8 million gallons in 2022, it accounted for less than 0.1 percent of the total jet fuel used by major U.S. airlines” -from the Action link below, data from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

Advocating for this shift and adding pressure on the overall industry, and its regulators, consumers could influence systemic fuel change to support an ever growing amount of flights. See these links to learn about SAF from the International Air Transport Association with some details about encouraging policy change, incentives, production growth and how SAF can reduce emissions from Travel & Transit.