The Netherlands remains committed to imposing a mandate to blend lower-carbon sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) with jet-A from 2023 and increase the obligation to a 14 percent blend by 2030, Dutch minister of infrastructure and water management Cora van Nieuwenhuizen told members of parliament this week. The use of sustainable aviation fuels is one of the few possibilities to “significantly” reduce aviation’s carbon emissions in the short- and medium-term, she noted, pledging the country will take the lead on pushing for an EU-wide mandate.
A European approach, she said, would be preferable over a national blending mandate in view of ensuring a level playing field, the potential to achieve a larger CO2 reduction, and the international character of the aviation sector. But if the introduction of a European blending obligation in a timely manner fails, the Netherlands will “strive to introduce a national mandate by 2023.”
The Dutch government last year reached a National Agreement on Sustainable Aviation with stakeholders. This agreement stipulates that, by 2030, 14 percent of all aviation fuels should be sustainable and sets down the ambition to completely replace fossil kerosene with SAF by 2050.
The European Commission is targeting to publish a legislative proposal establishing a blending mandate—most likely from 2025—across the 27-country bloc. At a SAF roundtable with all stakeholders organized by the commission’s directorate-general for mobility, DG Move, in Brussels on Wednesday, Lufthansa expressed a preference for an obligation on suppliers rather than users.