Sustainable Aviation Fuel And Decarbonizing Canada's Aviation Industry

The Canadian aviation industry is expanding efforts to tackle climate change and reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

While the aviation industry is responsible for only 3 percent of Canada's overall annual GHG emissions, it is one of the few remaining sectors where emissions have continued to increase over the past decade.

Canadian air operators were responsible for releasing approximately 22 megatons (Mt) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) into the atmosphere in 2019, from both domestic and international flights, this quantity represents a 75 percent increase in the industry's GHG emissions between 2005 and 2019.

In response, on September 27, 2022, the Government of Canada released Canada's Aviation Climate Action Plan (2022-2030), which aims to have 10 percent of all aviation fuel used come from sustainable sources by 2030. Achieving this goal will require scaling-up the production and use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), a jet fuel alternative that