Fueling the Future: How RMI Is Powering Low-Carbon Flight
From the RMI Spring 2025 Impact Report: https://rmi.org/impact-spring-2025/
Air travel generates nearly 2.5 percent of global carbon emissions, largely due to fossil jet fuel. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) — often made from waste oils, agricultural residues, or captured carbon — can cut emissions by more than 80 percent and work in today’s aircraft with no modifications. So why isn’t SAF taking off?
The answer lies in a classic chicken-and-egg problem. SAF suppliers face high up-front costs, long permitting timelines, and fragmented demand, while buyers are deterred by limited availability, higher prices, and uncertainty around emissions accounting. That’s where RMI steps in.
With support from strategic philanthropy, RMI co-founded the Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance (SABA) with Environmental Defense Fund and ENGIE Impact, with expert support from the Center for Green Market Activation. SABA aggregates demand from climate-leading companies, proving to suppliers that real, reliable markets exist. By uniting buyers — including tech firms, logistics providers, and consumer brands — SABA reduces market risk and unlocks investment needed to scale SAF production and infrastructure.
RMI also built the enabling tools: a trusted registry to track emissions reductions, standardized procurement guidance, and a certificate system that allows buyers to credibly claim climate benefits. This infrastructure supported the largest-ever aggregated SAF certificate purchase and laid the foundation for a global market.
Importantly, SAF certificates allow buyers to support emissions reductions even when physical SAF isn’t available at their location. This flexibility creates new entry points for corporate climate leaders while sending strong demand signals to producers.
Our leadership in demand aggregation isn’t new. In 2015, RMI launched the Business Renewables Center, which evolved into the Clean Energy Buyers Association — now a global force in clean power procurement. We’re applying that proven model to aviation and beyond.
SABA’s success offers a blueprint for other hard-to-abate sectors. RMI co-developed the registry used by the Zero-Emissions Maritime Buyers Alliance, and we are building new coalitions that include the Sustainable Steel Buyers Platform and ZEROGrid, a coalition focusing on clean energy to support grid reliability. We’re also exploring new models in cement, concrete, and other industries where emissions reductions are most challenging.
The lesson is clear: when corporate climate leaders act together, they shift markets. With RMI’s guidance and your support, a low-carbon aviation future is not only possible — it’s already in motion.
