The federal government of South Korea introduced the discharge of its “Sustainable Aviation Gasoline (SAF) Mixing Mandate Roadmap,” introducing necessities for worldwide departing flights to start utilizing gasoline containing sustainable aviation gasoline (SAF), starting in 2027, and with SAF content material set to extend over the subsequent few years.
Gasoline accounts for the overwhelming majority of the aviation sector’s emissions. Usually produced from sustainable assets, like waste oils and agricultural residues, SAF is seen as one of many key instruments to assist decarbonize the aviation business within the near- to medium-term. SAF producers estimate the fuels can lead to lifecycle GHG emissions reductions of as a lot as 85% relative to traditional fuels.
In response to a latest report by the Worldwide Air Transport Affiliation (IATA), nevertheless, whereas SAF manufacturing is anticipated to double in 2025, it’ll nonetheless account for simply 0.7% of airways’ complete gasoline consumption.
South Korea’s new guidelines kind the newest in a collection of SAF mandates by jurisdictions globally, together with the EU and UK, which every applied a 2% SAF mandate starting in 2025,
Beneath the brand new mandate, launched by South Korea’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) and Ministry of Commerce, Business and Vitality (MOTIE), worldwide departing flights from Korea in 2027 will likely be required to make use of gasoline with a 1% SAF mix, with mix mandates rising to three–5% in 2030 and seven–10% in 2035. The particular ranges for 2030 and 2035 will likely be based mostly on latest international market developments and home business issues.
Whereas MOLIT and MOTIE stated that may embody penalties for non-compliance will likely be included within the new mandate, they are going to be initially deferred. Moreover, the mandate contains flexibility mechanisms permitting as much as 20% of the entire SAF-blended gasoline provide requirement for a given 12 months to be deferred and fulfilled inside the following three years. New airways will likely be exempt from the mandate of their first three years of economic operation.
Fuels that will likely be acknowledged as SAF within the mandate will likely be those who have achieved the carbon discount stage required by worldwide requirements based mostly on the Worldwide Civil Aviation Group (ICAO), and with bio-aviation gasoline high quality requirements anticipated to be established within the first half of 2026.
In response to South Korea’s Vice Minister for Transport KANG Hee-up, the brand new SAF mandate “represents Korea’s first step towards attaining carbon neutrality in worldwide aviation, and will likely be remembered as a historic milestone that additional elevates Korea’s standing because the world’s eighth-largest air transport nation.”
