Avinor arranged the SAF Conference in Oslo the 20th of May, where the Norwegian stakeholders were brought together.
The day started with Avinor and Zero explaining the importance of SAF as an instrument for reduce emissions from civil aviation. Due to the landscape and scarce population, Norway is more dependent on aviation compared with other countries. SAF is seen crucial for greenhouse gas reduction for the foreseeable future. The Norwegian Chief of Defense stated that SAF is the most important measure to reduce CO2 emissions from fighter jets but also other military airplanes.
It was announced that the incorporation of RED II into the EEA agreement is now underway, and it can be expected that it will be completed by the summer. In addition, the government has decided to incorporate ReFuelEU into the EEA agreement as well, coming into force latest in 2027. Norway currently has the first version of RED adopted, which poses administrative challenges to the Norwegian companies reporting GHG emissions, so the audience was pleased to hear the good news. Norway was the first country mandating SAF, but the now it lags behind after RefuelEU has been adopted in EU. This measure will enforce the same competitiveness of the Norwegian aviation industry. The mandates will give predictable future markets but will not give good solutions on local or domestic supply, so this is still something we will need to work on. HEFA, the only type of SAF available on the market is expected to have good availability until 2030, but with increasing mandates worldwide and limited renewable/waste oil sources available, the SAF availability after 2030 uncertain and it is expected that more non-HEFA type of SAF need to enter the market.
During the course of the day, we have heard presentations from the Norwegian initiatives. The industry wants to get Norwegian SAF production started, the government wants it too and we saw that there are several initiatives underway in Norway, one of them is Bio4Fuels user partner, Silva Green Fuel. To reach the emission targets in aviation but also for other transportation modes in Norway, a good strategy to cover the increased power demand and a good strategy for biofuels and bioenergy must be developed. As an inspiration, the UK initiatives were presented by UK Department of Transport.
