The Asia-Pacific air transport industry needs to speak with one voice on the production and use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), All Nippon Airways’ (ANA) sustainability lead said at Routes Asia 2024.

“I have attended a few ICAO meetings over the years and I noticed that the African group of nations and Europeans are very organized. They voice their concerns in one voice. But there is nothing from Asia-Pacific. This is a big issue,” ANA director of decarbonization and corporate planning Hiroaki Sugimori said as he discussed the use of palm oil as a feedstock to produce SAF.

The European Union frowns upon the use of palm oil because of the perception that it contributes to deforestation, but it remains open to using cooking oil derived from palm oil as a SAF feedstock.

Sugimori called for greater transparency from palm oil producers in Malaysia and Indonesia to share the whole life cycle of palm oil production.

Sugimori also expressed concerns about SAF mandate and levies, which he said could hinder the scaling up of future technologies.

“If you have a mandate, you might see fast scaling up of current technologies like hydroprocessed esters and fatty acids [HEFA], but that might be not the case for other technologies like Fischer-Tropsch and alcohol-to-jet,” he said, adding that policies must also be in line to support these mandates to ensure the whole eco-system is served.

Singapore announced in mid-February that it is planning to impose a SAF levy for passengers as well as a 1% SAF uptake target for all departing flights starting from 2026.