A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Senior Editor

Curt Epstein

As the United Nations COP26 climate change conference&nbsp;in Scotland focused its efforts on transportation today, the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA) announced the formation of an&nbsp;industry user group to promote investment in sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and increase its acceptance.

 


SABA, which was launched earlier this year, is a joint initiative by&nbsp;the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and forward-looking energy nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI). Its new Aviators Group includes founding members Amazon Air, Alaska Airlines, JetBlue, and United Airlines.

 


At the Glasgow conference, U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg highlighted the release of the government's <a href="https://www.faa.gov/sites/faa.gov/files/2021-11/Aviation_Climate_Action_Plan.pdf">aviation climate action plan</a>, which, for the first time, sets out the goal of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from the U.S. aviation sector by 2050.&nbsp;

 


While keynoting today’s transportation day event at the U.S. Center Pavilion, Buttigieg told the audience that SABA's advocacy comes at a crucial juncture. “Right now, 11 percent of U.S. transportation sector emissions are coming from aviation,” he said, adding that that share will grow over the coming decades. “I think it’s never been more urgent for us to demonstrate our capacity, in our political and economic systems that have been fraying at the seams, to actually deliver change on an accelerated basis." Buttigieg challenged SABA to spur the pace of uptake of SAF&nbsp;and arrive at next year’s conference loaded with significant new offtake agreements from its membership.

 


Globally, air travel accounts for around 2.5 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, a figure that is expected to rise, as jet fuel use is expected to double from pre-pandemic levels by 2050. SAF, which is produced from renewable sources or waste feedstocks, can in its neat form reduce lifecycle carbon emissions by 80 percent, yet today it represents less than 0.1 percent of the aviation fuel consumed. SABA is working with stakeholders such as academic experts, fuel producers, and airlines to establish a sustainability framework that will ensure SAF contributes to “credible” emissions reductions and without any unintended environmental or social problems.

 


“We are excited to join SABA as a founding member of the Aviators Group to partner, advise, and learn from leading SAF experts RMI and EDF, tackling head-on key challenges that will hopefully enable rapid scale-up of an SAF industry,” said JetBlue CEO Robin Hayes. He noted that while SAF’s potential to reduce air travel emissions has been well documented, “it has long suffered from supply and cost challenges that keep overall usage low.”

 


In a panel discussion following Secretary Buttigieg’s comments, Diana Birkett Rakow, Alaska Airlines v-p of public affairs and sustainability, described SAF as a “critical unlock” for medium-range and long-haul flying. “We all need it, so we all have to make sure that it is available," she said. "It’s not just a demand issue or a supply issue.&nbsp;We have to work on both at once.” She added that “we’re really thrilled to create this new Aviators Group inside SABA to bring an operators'&nbsp;perspective to the conversation as the users of the fuel, to work with the SABA members to make sure that the fuel is getting purchased, getting into our engines, and flying people.”

 


SABA’s founding customer group includes Bank of America, Boeing, Boston Consulting Group, Deloitte, JPMorgan Chase, McKinsey &amp; Company, Microsoft, Netflix, Salesforce, and its newest member Meta (formerly Facebook). EDF and RMI also unveiled SABA’s formal membership structure, opening its rolls to interested public and private organizations worldwide.

 


“With SABA membership comes transparency, accountability, and confidence to prove that members are living up to their climate commitments,” explained Bryan Fisher, managing director of RMI’s climate-aligned industry program.

 


As part of that transparency, SABA’s membership is backing the establishment of a rigorous system for tracking environmental credits through so-called book and claim programs that allow customers to&nbsp;purchase SAF and claim its benefits, even though the SAF itself may be dispensed hundreds or even thousands of miles away in a different aircraft.

News about environmental issues relating to aircraft operations, including noise issues, emissisions, and regulations. See Fuel for biofuel.

COP26 Conference Sees Debut of Pro-SAF User Group

At the UN climate conference this week, an aviation industry users group was formed to promote investment and use of sustainable aviation fuel.

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

New developments at FBOs including regulations and noise issues; legal disputes; openings, acquisitions and mergers.

News and developments about aviation fuel, including jet fuel, aviation gasoline, and biofuel.

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

Green fuel tol be offered by ACI Jet, the lone FBO on the field

Another California Airport Joining the SAF Set

News about bills, laws, regulations and other governmental decisions affecting aviation and aerospace. Topics include FAA re-authorizations, taxes on fuel and aviation activities, environmental legislation, ICAO decisions, governmental mediation of labor conflicts and World Trade Organization disputes and decisions.

News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

Association notes production ramp-ups have been delayed

IATA Disappointed in Slow SAF Growth

Charles Alcock

News and developments about airplanes, helicopters and unmanned air vehicles used in all varieties of operations, including airlines, military, business, commercial, general aviation and private.

News and developments about aircraft engines, including turbofan, turboprop, turboshaft and piston.

More In Environment

Another California Airport Joining the SAF Set

Green fuel tol be offered by ACI Jet, the lone FBO on the field

IATA Disappointed in Slow SAF Growth

Association notes production ramp-ups have been delayed

Green Aviation Takes Root in France's Aerospace Valley

Organization holds its sixth annual Green Aero Days event in Toulouse

RTX Launches Sustainability Alliance With Dutch Aerospace Sector

Collins Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney are committed to new R&D efforts in the Netherlands

EU's Clean Aviation Set to Invite Proposals for Decarbonization R&D Work

Total funding for the third phase of work could top €950 million

Florida FBO Becomes First on East Coast To Offer SAF

Naples Aviation is the first of many to begin offering SAF in the coming months

Pakistan's First SAF Plant Gets Funding Boost

The large-scale plant is expected to come online in 2026

New Major SAF Plant Planned for Texas

The multi-billion-dollar facility is expected to be running by 2029

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