Five noteworthy aviation sustainability developments in the past seven days curated by the Ishka SAVi team.
Here are the new developments to keep in mind:
1. Leaked Clean Industrial Deal draft and what it could mean for aviation
EU policy: An early draft of the Clean Industrial Deal (CID), expected to be announced later this month, was leaked last Friday, providing hints on incoming EU support to decarbonise aviation. Aviation was directly mentioned twice: as a target industry in relation to the launch of the Hydrogen Mechanism under the European Hydrogen Bank in Q2 2025, which will mobilise and connect offtakers and suppliers to facilitate demand aggregation, and as part of the Sustainable Transport Investment Plan (STIP) which is scheduled in the European Commission’s work programme for Q3 2025. The STIP is expected to outline short-term measures to prioritise support to specific renewable and low-carbon fuels for aviation and waterborne transport.
There are also other items potentially relevant to aviation by de-risking SAF or renewable and low-carbon hydrogen projects. They include:
- Q1 2025: Adoption of the Low Carbon Hydrogen Delegated Act
- Q3 2025: The launch of a third call for renewable and low-carbon hydrogen producer funding under the Hydrogen Bank in Q3 2025, for which the budget is not disclosed
- Q4 2025: The Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act will propose measures to address permitting bottlenecks related to energy and industrial decarbonisation.
- H2 2025: The commission will present a comprehensive CBAM review assessing its extension to other EU ETS sectors and downstream products as well as indirect emissions. The review will include a strategy to tackle carbon leakage.
- No specific timeline: Establishment of an EIB counter-guarantee pilot programme for corporate Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) to derisk the purchase of long-term renewable electricity. This aims to help projects (including green hydrogen production) reach FID by de-risking offtakes of PPAs.
- No specific timeline: Implementation of the Industrial Carbon Management Strategy, which is expected to build the business case for permanent carbon removals to compensate for residual emissions from hard-to-abate sectors. The document confirms that carbon removals will be discussed in the review of the ETS Directive in 2026.
- No specific timeline: Several innovation funding efforts: launch of “Tech EU,” increase InvestEU’s risk-bearing capacity, inclusion of a clean-tech “Competitiveness Fund in the next Multiannual Financial Framework, increased funding under the Innovation Fund.
With thanks to our colleagues at Climate Catalyst whose takeaways contributed to this analysis.
2. EU Commissioner gives e-SAF support clues ahead of Clean Industrial Deal launch
Clean Industrial Deal clues: Separately this week, the EU Commissioner in charge of sustainable transport, Apostolos Tzitzikostas, said during an e-SAF event in Brussels on 18th February that the upcoming Clean Industrial Deal (CID) due to be unveiled later in February would “pave the way” for measures to scale-up e-SAF. Tzitzikostas said that Europe’s competitiveness depends on achieving “low and stable” energy prices including for SAF, and – as hinted in the leaked CID draft – the Sustainable Transport Investment Plan (STIP) currently being prepared by the Commission would support e-SAF. Tzitzikostas acknowledged that the ReFuelEU Aviation framework is currently “not stimulating market investment at the level that we want, nor at the level that we need.” He then went on to provide an “overview of the key pillars” to bridge the private and public investment gap, which should include “short and medium-term measures.” Those measures could range from actions under existing programmes such as research initiative Horizon Europe, the EU ETS-funded Innovation Fund (including European Hydrogen Bank auctions), or guarantee mechanisms under InvestEU. It could also involve the European Investment Bank (EIB) and “other financial institutions” to de-risk private investment in “large-scale production facilities.” “We'll also look at new mechanisms to reduce the price gap for domestically produced synthetic fuels, and at the revenue guarantee for first movers,” he commented – both resembling ideas put forward by Project SkyPower (see item three in this report). Tzitzikostas also committed to enabling investments in renewable and low-carbon transport fuels in third countries via the EU’s Global Gateway initiative, an EU strategy to invest in infrastructure projects worldwide.
Ahead of Tzitzikostas’ remarks and at the same event, French MEP François Kalfon, a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN), shared bolder suggestions for how to support e-SAF projects. “Why not make it compulsory for oil companies to invest in the production of alternative fuels and e-kerosene?” Kalfon pondered. He highlighted that the only energy major (Shell) to have ever committed to e-SAF production in Europe has since withdrawn from the project. Kalfon also listed “increased financial support,” including energy sector-inspired “contracts for difference” ensuring a “fixed purchase price for e-kerosene with an EU subsidy mechanism,” as a suitable measure to support e-SAF. He also underlined that corporate aviation “needs to make an effort” and signalled that he would support a “stricter timetable” for private aviation operators to adopt a “higher proportion of SAF than in commercial aviation.”
3. E-SAF demands put forward by Project SkyPower
E-SAF policy: The event featuring Tzitzikostas and Kalfon, hosted by NGO Transport & Environment (T&E) and supported by e-SAF initiative Project SkyPower, coincided with this week’s publication of a letter backed by 75 European organisations. The under-signatories called on the European Commission to commit to measures to unlock the e-SAF scale-up through five key policy interventions. They are: making e-SAF a strategic priority in both the Clean Industrial Deal and the Sustainable Transport Investment Plan (STIP), recycling ETS revenues from aviation to capitalise an offtaker market intermediary, establishing a bridging mechanism in 2025 to incentivise early offtakes, providing long-term certainty over the continued enforcement of e-SAF sub-mandates, and reduce project-on-project risk via a backstop mechanism. The signatories included major OEMs, airlines, airports, e-SAF project developers, and aviation finance stakeholders. It was also signed by industry associations and NGOs including Impact, of which Ishka is an active member. In a parallel effort to leverage the CID to achieve aviation decarbonisation, the Skies and Seas Hydrogen-fuels Accelerator Coalition (SASHA Coalition) published a position paper with four key policy recommendations, including strengthening e-fuel sub-targets, increasing the scope of the ETS (both to all international aviation and non-CO2 emissions), adopting a target for the use of zero-emission aircraft, and introducing a contracts for difference scheme to support e-fuels.
4. Jackson Square Aviation buys SAF Scope 3 emissions credits
Lessor efforts: In a first for an aircraft lessor, Jackson Square Aviation (JSA) has retired a batch of SAF Scope 3 emissions credits. The transaction builds in a partnership announced last year by JSA – which is dually headquartered in San Francisco and Dublin – and Future Energy Global (FEG), a SAF ecosystem builder and production accelerator. The two companies did not specify what portion of JSA’s Scope 3 emissions would be compensated with these credits, but the press release notes that a company with staff flying for business is responsible for its staff’s share of the flight’s emissions under Scope 3, or indirect emissions. “When a company like JSA purchases and retires SAF-derived Scope 3 credits, it contributes to reducing the SAF premium for airlines and thus enables the faster ramp-up of SAF production,” FEG noted.
5. Eviation announces layoffs, raising concerns about its future
New propulsion hurdles: US electric aircraft developer Eviation, whose nine-seater aircraft Alice became the largest all-electric commercial aircraft concept when it first flew in 2022, reportedly laid off the majority of its staff earlier this month, The Air Current reported on 14th February. Eviation CEO Andre Stein told the publication that the staff reductions helped the company look for “strategic opportunities” and that the electric aircraft manufacturing program was not being shut down, but did not offer details. The OEM has yet to put out a statement and there have not been further reports on the company’s situation. The news trails two other recent announcements on aircraft projects based around new propulsion system hitting roadblocks: Airbus’ ZEROe budget cut and EIS delay (see this week’s Ishka SAVi coverage), and ATR’s similar decision to delay the EIS of its next-generation ATR EVO citing insufficient technology maturity. On a related development, the public-private Clean Aviation research and innovation programme launched a third call for proposals worth €380 million ($400 million) in EU funding. The calls focus on: Ultra-efficient Short-Medium Range (SMR) aircraft architectures, Ultra-efficient Regional (REG) aircraft architectures, Aircraft Concept Integration & Impact Assessment (ACI&I), and Fast-Track Activities (FTAs).
Call for participants: The European Commission is currently inviting different types of organisations, including individual companies operating in the EU aviation sector, to join the expert group on climate change policy (CCEG) to “strengthen discussions and contribute to the effective implementation” of the EU ETS Directive for aviation.
