On Wednesday 5 August, the European Commission opened a public consultation on the proposal for a regulation it intends to adopt in the winter of 2020 with the aim of “reducing the environmental footprint of the aviation sector by stimulating the supply and demand of sustainable aviation fuels in the EU”.
Citizens and stakeholders have until midnight on 28 October to send their recommendations.
The institution has already received more than a hundred returns on the roadmap for the same initiative, published at the end of March and opened for consultation until April (see EUROPE 12454/25).
Among the first contributors is the International Air Transport Association (IATA), which advocates, for example, that a number of “key criteria” be assessed, such as appropriate mechanisms to encourage investment, the availability of different raw materials and industry-accepted sustainability standards.
The Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe (ASD), for its part, welcomed the idea of establishing an “EU coordination platform” aimed at harmonising the approach to these fuels.
For Hydrogen Europe, finally, the initiative is “both timely and needed”. However, it stresses that sustainable aviation fuels are not the only possible solution to reduce CO2 emissions from the aviation sector, as “hydrogen or hybrid electric technologies are also in the picture”. (Original version in French by Agathe Cherki)