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. UK firm AeroVolt pioneers electric aviation Book & Claim
New propulsion: UK electric aviation charging infrastructure firm Aerovolt this week unveiled details of a pioneering aviation-emissions mitigation concept: Electric Book & Claim (EBC). Similar to SAF Book & Claim – which allows third parties to cover part or all of SAF’s price premium in exchange for claiming its environmental benefits – EBC would channel revenue from certificate sales to offset electricity costs, fund ground infrastructure, and potentially support battery replacement. “We discovered that electric infrastructure has the same challenge as SAF, but when you look at the CO2 avoidance element, it actually works out significantly cheaper than SAF,” Aerovolt founder and CEO Philip Kingsley-Dobson told Ishka SAVi this week. Kingsley-Dobson said the concept has received positive market feedback and already has “a couple of clients” prepared to purchase credits in the UK, with prospective customers in Switzerland and elsewhere. Aerovolt is targeting an initial issuance of 5,000 credits (equivalent to 5,000 tonnes of CO₂), with plans to scale to 10,000 tonnes annually by the end of 2027 or 2028.
The firm describes four steps in the EBC process: logging flights as normal through an operations platform (with Skylegs as the software partner) or manual logs, reconciling electric flight hours and energy use against a baseline emissions model (at the moment, aircraft of comparable power rating), calculating and allocating the correct volume of EBC credits, and issuance of certificates for eventual retirement. An external validator, Luxembourg-based SustainCERT, will periodically verify the system’s accounting. The power rating comparability is a requirement by Book and Claim registry Verra and it means that, at least at launch, credits will only be generated by the two-seater 141-hp H55-designed Bristell B23 Energic and to be claimed by operators of the 140-hp turboprop-powered sister aircraft, the B23. “At the moment, you can't just take a Cessna 172 and put it up against a Pipistrel Velis or something else because the flight envelope is different,” Kingsley-Dobson explains, although he caveats that the concept could one day become more flexible as it develops.
H55, a leading Swiss electric and battery propulsion manufacturer, is partnering with Aerovolt to support the concept. Aerovolt, meanwhile, plans to use EBC to support charging infrastructure roll-out in the US, where the Bristell Energic will be delivered to flight schools and recreational users next year. Using neat SAF reference prices at Oxford Airport in the UK, Aerovolt estimates that EBC is around 70% cheaper on a per-tonne-of-CO2 avoided. For more details, see Aerovolt’s Electric Book & Claim Knowledge Centre.
In a related development, H55 announced this week that it has become the first electric aircraft battery manufacturer to pass a regulator-required and authority-witnessed propulsion battery module certification test sequence as part of EASA tests completed last December. Final certification is expected this year paving the way for B23 Energic customer deliveries in Europe.
2. ATAG publishes updated 2050 net zero roadmap
Roadmaps: The Air Transport Action Group (ATAG) has published the third edition of its Waypoint 2050 report. The 76-page report updates the 2021 industry-reference publication. It assesses the industry’s progress towards net zero, emphasising that each year of delay makes it “harder and more costly” to achieve net zero by 2050, though it optimistically highlights that “many of the required foundations are in place.” The authors argue there is a five-year window to accelerate work on the main levers to decarbonise the sector, which it argues are: the scaling of SAF production, the implementation of CORSIA, the deployment of fuel-efficient aircraft, the modernisation of ATM systems, and the development and scaling of carbon removals. It also highlights short-term challenges to decarbonising the sector, including the lasting impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, supply chain issues, geopolitical conflicts. and tariffs.
In the details, this edition projects the transition to 2050 will cost around $4.7 trillion, with between $1.2tn and $4.3tn going to SAF investment. It provides three decarbonisation scenarios detailed on pages 24-27 – business as usual, SAF-centric, and tech-centric –, as well as in other pages specific “calls to action,” including for the finance community. Reflecting on SAF progress, the report highlights that “despite substantial capacity scale-up and progress, actual production remains below all previous SAF scenarios.” Global SAF production has doubled each year since 2018, and ATAG expects a production of approximately 2 Mt in 2025 (in line with IATA expectations), which it says calls for a “more aggressive acceleration […] now, and particularly in the 2030-2045 timeframe, in order to meet industry requirements”. SAF concerns are detailed on pages 45-58. On the tech front, the technical roadmaps are adjusted – as other decarbonisation roadmaps have done – to lower technological expectations from a previous T5 scenario by 2050 (a revolutionary shift towards zero-emission aircraft, now absent) to T3 (various new propulsion aircraft through to the 300-seat category, with hybrid propulsion only possible for larger aircraft). The scenario reclassification follows increasingly conservative projections for the entry into service (EIS) of hydrogen aircraft. Technology considerations are detailed on pages 30-39.
3. US releases proposed 45Z guidance for cornerstone SAF tax credit
US SAF policy: The US Department of the Treasury (USDT) and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on 3rd February issued proposed regulations to determine the eligibility and calculation of the clean fuel production credit, the 45Z credit. The credit, a cornerstone of US federal SAF policy incentives since its introduction under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), was amended in July 2025 under Trump’s One, Big, Beautiful Bill (OBBB), and clean fuel producers in the US have since been awaiting concrete guidance on how the incentive is applied following those amendments (for a quick summary, see this summary by law firm Holland & Hart). The proposed regulations provide that guidance and confirm, among other things, that the 45Z credit cannot be stacked with the 45Q tax credit for carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS). A public comment period on the proposal will close on 6th April, with technical guidance expected later in the year. The Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), a leading ethanol lobby group, welcomed the guidance but noted that questions in some areas remain unanswered. The Clean Fuels Alliance America (CFAA), which represents the biodiesel, SAF, and renewable diesel sectors, also welcomed the proposal. In a related development this week, bipartisan legislation was introduced to the US Senate to strengthen and extend the 45Z tax credit, a companion to the Securing America’s Fuel (SAF) Act in Congress introduced late last year. The bill aims to reinstate the 45Z credit up to $1.75 per gallon (reduced to $1 by the OBBB amendments), and it would extend it through 2033 from 2029 at present. The SAF Coalition, an industry group, welcomed the bill’s introduction.
4. SG Airshow: Airbus to test Open Fan in Singapore, SAFco trial welcomes corporates
Singapore Airshow : SAF and new technologies were reportedly centre stage during this week’s biennial Singapore Airshow. Notable announcements made during the event include an MoU between Airbus, CFM, and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) to establish Singapore as an airport testing ground for CFM’s RISE technologies – the Open Fan architecture. The MoU contains plans for the efficient engine architecture, a possible replacement for high by-pass turbofans in the next generation of narrowbodies, to conduct operational trials either at Changi or Seletar airports in the city state. The parties will also co-develop a readiness framework for the Open Fan’s integration into existing airports. Meanwhile, the Singapore Sustainable Aviation Fuel Company Ltd. (SAFCo), a government entity that will centralise SAF purchase under Singapore’s SAF levy policy, announced this week, together with nine companies, a SAF procurement system trial. The system will allow some of the participating countries to mitigate their emissions through SAF purchases under an upcoming SAF purchase tender. The participating parties, including companies that will support the SAF purchases, are Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Changi Airport Group, DBS, GenZero, Google, OCBC, Temasek, Singapore Airlines, and Scoot.
5. EU publishes first set of methodologies for carbon removals
Carbon Capture: The European Commission on 3rd February adopted the first set of methodologies under the carbon removal and carbon farming (CRCF) regulation to certify activities that permanently remove CO2 from the atmosphere. The rules cover direct air capture with carbon storage (DACCS), biogenic emissions capture with carbon storage (BioCCS), and biochar carbon removal (BCR), which means carbon removal projects using any of these three methods can now be certified and recognised under the EU’s carbon removal framework. Last December, the EU announced the establishment of an EU’s Buyers’ Club for permanent removals and carbon farming to kickstart the voluntary CRCF credits. NGO Carbon Market Watch argued this type of “private sector involvement could be problematic if turned into yet another offsetting scheme,” arguing instead that “the EU should soon move towards legal obligations to procure removals.” The Aviation Environment Federation (AEF) advocated along a similar line for the UK, building on the proposal in the Whitehead independent review of GGR removals in the UK to incorporate GGRs into a wider “Net Zero Mandate.”
