The global airline industry has not lost sight of its carbon-reduction goals, despite financial hardship from the near-total grounding of worldwide air travel since March. In the battle for survival, many had assumed that high-cost sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) would fall by the wayside as a casualty of the Covid-19 pandemic. But that is not the case, judging from presenta-tions at the International Air Transport Association’s (IATA) Fuel Forum held online late last month (JFI May25’20). Industry stakeholders are insisting that SAF is a key component of indus-try recovery, providing a license to continue growing-albeit at a slower pace than prior to the pandemic. Governments are under pressure from environmental activists and political parties to tie any state aid or other relief to environmental improve-ments. The German government nonetheless opted not to impose new carbon emissions targets on flag carrier Lufthansa when it agreed to a €9 billion rescue package. German Economics Minister Peter Altmaier said that, “we have deliber-ately refrained from imposing conditions beyond the broader sustainability requirement, because our aim is not to have the state determine the company’s day-to-day business strategy.”
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