An agreement has been reached on Wednesday by EU lawmakers and member state governments to speed up "green" aviation fuels at airports in an effort to cut carbon emissions.

The agreement includes a minimum of 2% sustainable aviation fuel, made from biofuel, synthetic, or recycled fuel derived from waste gases and plastic and then mixed into used kerosene. The preliminary deal is due to take off in 2025 and rise to 70% by the year 2050.

This is part of the EU's target to reach a net carbon-neutral future and pertains to the EU's carbon market including sea and air transport.

According to the European Commission, increasing sustainable aviation fuels would diminish aircraft carbon dioxide emissions by two-thirds by the year 2050, while the head of the aviation industry group Airlines for Europe, Laurent Donceel, stated that the deal "provides certainty for the SAF (sustainable aviation fuel) industry and airlines alike."

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Donceel urged Brussels to advocate for sustainable aviation fuels more in the same manner it does for solar panels and wind turbines so it is "not pricing passengers out of the air".  

Aviation emissions in Europe have seen a 5% increase between 2013 and 2019, which decreased after the Covid-19 pandemic measures. Now that the measures are lifted, and aviation traffic is on the rebound, 

The European Parliament and the European Council are required to formally adopt the deal before it is ratified as a new EU law. 

Failure to launch

The EU has been struggling to both agree on environmental laws and implement them. 

Back in March, a left-oriented Spanish MEP, Cesar Luena, told the parliament discussing the nature restoration text that "things are not looking very good" while chair of the European parliament's environment committee, Pascal Canfin, claimed there was progress developing the energy, industry, and transport aspects of the texts but said there was none regarding agriculture and fishing.

The parliament plans to adopt laws on improving the carbon trading market and introducing a carbon border tax on imports, which are meant to cut greenhouse gas emissions as part of the plan for a net carbon-neutral future - in the bloc that is collectively the third-biggest global emitter of carbon dioxide.

The biggest nation emitting CO2 is China, which has vowed to reduce emissions to net zero by 2060, followed by the US which has a long-term plan of reaching net zero by 2050.   

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