Project SkyPower calls on policymakers to scale up e-SAF production

25 February 2025: ERA is part of the SkyPower coalition of aviation partners, including airlines, e-SAF innovators and finance houses. The coalition last week sent an open letter to the European Commission calling for the scaling up of e-SAF production capacity to be urgently de-risked to ensure the success of the ReFuelEU Aviation mandates.

The private sector is ready to act, but key barriers are slowing progress – a lack of long-term revenue certainty, price risk, regulatory risk, and the challenges of first-of-a-kind projects. First-of-a-kind plants must reach Final Investment Decision by the end of 2025 to meet ReFuelEU sub-mandates starting in 2030.

The co-signatories call EU policymakers to urgently facilitate a more enabling policy environment to accelerate the scale-up of e-SAF, via five key interventions:

1. Make e-SAF a strategic priority in the Clean Industrial Deal and the Sustainable Transport Investment Plan.
2. Recycle ETS revenues from aviation to capitalise a market intermediary that enters long-term contracts with e-SAF producers and short-term contracts with offtakers.
3. Establish a bridging mechanism in 2025 to support first movers before the intermediary comes online.
4. Provide certainty on mandates, production criteria and penalties.
5. Mitigate project-on-project risk via a government-backed backstop mechanism.

By successfully scaling e-SAF, Europe can increase its energy security, reducing reliance on imported fossil fuels, and strengthen its climate leadership, leading the way for large-scale emissions reductions in the global aviation industry.

See the open letter developed by Project SkyPower here.