The ATAG Member Briefing

SAF outreach in 2023 and 2024

Securing government and investor support for the scale-up of SAF is critical. ATAG therefore organised a series of events in 2023 for the finance community, to explain aviation’s decarbonisation and the opportunities for investment that development of the SAF industry presents.

MDB briefing, Montreal, March 2023

Haldane Dodd was invited to join an informal ICAO Council briefing in Montreal in March 2023, with the multilateral development banks (MDBs) and also took the opportunity to meet with a number of Council Members individually.

World Bank Spring Meetings, Washington, D.C., April 2023

ATAG organised a dedicated briefing in Washington, D.C. in April for MDBs, many of whom were gathered there for the World Bank Spring Meetings. The briefing focused on:

• aviation's sector-wide net-zero commitment and SAF’s key role
• the demand outlook for SAF
• the need for partnerships to enable aviation’s energy transition
• the importance and potential in scaling up SAF to production levels required in order to decarbonise commercial air transport
• investment requirements, the role of different forms of finance and the potential for blended finance
• the social and economic benefits that investment in SAF can bring by creating new energy industries in developing and emerging economies all over the world.

Participation at the Washington meeting, which was hosted by Airlines for America, included a select group of MDBs with speakers from the US Government, the aviation industry, CDPQ and ICF. A recording is available here (passcode E=0QJaYM). NOTE: this is for ATAG members only and should not be shared.

Finance sector briefings - London, May and New York, October 2023

ATAG organised two additional briefings on the financing of sustainable aviation fuel in London and New York. The audience comprised banks, institutional investors, leasing companies, energy suppliers and a selection of industry representatives. The subject matter was similar to that discussed in Washington.

SAF briefings in 2024

The various SAF briefings that ATAG has organised so far have resulted in some very promising interactions with banks and investors. We have noted a distinct interest and desire to learn more about SAF from both the financial sector and governments. We are continuing outreach on SAF during the course of 2024, via the following ATAG events, targeting the finance community specifically:

• A SAF financing roundtable which took place in February, on the sidelines of the Singapore Air Show. It was hosted by Boeing.
• A speech at Ishka ESG: Evolution, Implementation and Disclosure. This took place in London, in March.
• The Deutsche Bank Sustainable Aviation Investor Event in Frankfurt in April. Haldane Dodd will moderate a panel on: “the three pathways to decarbonisation”.
• Three ATAG events organised in partnership with Bloomberg: in London in July, in New York in October and in Singapore in November. Further information will be posted on the ATAG website in due course.