WEF-GenZero aviation initiative aims to boost green fuel uptake in region

The World Economic Forum and Singapore's GenZero launched an initiative on May 5 aimed at boosting regional demand for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and bolstering the aviation sector's climate credentials.

- David Fogarty

A key mission of the Green Fuel Forward initiative is to scale up production of SAF, which the industry regards as a vital tool to cut the sector's growing greenhouse gas emissions.

Governments globally, including Singapore's, have set mandates that map steady increases in the percentage of SAF in planes' fuel tanks in the coming years.

"The only way to get to net zero, or very close to net zero, by the middle of the century, is very, very large amounts of SAF," said Mr Robert Boyd, Boeing's sustainability lead for the Asia-Pacific.

More efficient aircraft designs and engines can get perhaps 20 per cent of the way, and operations such as better route planning—another 10 per cent, he told The Straits Times at the launch of the initiative during the GenZero Climate Summit 2025 at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre.

The summit, held from May 5 to 8, aims to showcase ways to hasten the decarbonisation of the global economy.

Boeing has been actively promoting the use of SAF and the company aims to ensure its commercial aircraft are certified to operate on 100 per cent SAF by 2030, said Mr Boyd.

Lack of awareness and higher costs for the greener fuel remain issues for SAF, which is two or three times as expensive as fossil fuel-derived aviation fuel.

And in Asia, the world's largest aviation market, demand is not keeping pace with planned production capacity additions in the coming years.