CORSIA: The first internationally adopted approach to calculate life-cycle GHG emissions for aviation fuels

The aviation sector has grown at a significant pace in recent years, and despite improvements in aircraft efficiency, the sector’s impact on climate change is a growing concern. To address this, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) established the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) to help reduce aviation greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs) are one means airlines can use to reduce their GHG emissions and comply with CORSIA. This paper presents a methodology agreed by ICAO member stated to evaluate the life-cycle GHG emissions of SAFs in the CORSIA system, using various feedstocks and conversion processes. The results demonstrate that a number of SAF can yield significant life-cycle emission reductions (over 90% and negative when induced land use change is included), compared to the petroleum-derived jet fuel baseline (89 gCO2e/MJ). This demonstrates the potentially major role of SAFs in reducing aviation’s carbon footprint.

PRUSSI Matteo;  LEE Uisung;  WANG Michael;  MALINA Robert;  VALIN Hugo;  TAHERIPOUR Farzad;  VELARDE Cesar;  STAPLES Mark;  LONZA RICCI Laura;  HILEMAN James; 

2021-08-17

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

JRC121778

1364-0321 (online),   

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032121006833,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC121778,   

10.1016/j.rser.2021.111398 (online),