Our Takeaways from SAF Congress 2026
Earlier this month, Sustainable Aviation Futures Congress brought together many of the individuals and companies working to answer one of aviation’s most important questions: how do we move sustainable aviation fuel from a small niche product to a truly scaled market?
The conversations on stage and in the hallways reflected a growing reality: the industry has moved beyond asking whether SAF is necessary and is now focused on how we accelerate deployment, reduce costs, and bring more participants to the table. Here’s took away from the event:
Co-Claims for the Win
One of the most energizing moments of the week was the SAF Co-Claims Frontier Workshop. The session brought together perspectives from across the aviation value chain, including airlines, airports, OEMs, financiers, logistics providers, and fuel producers, to explore a simple but powerful idea: If these entities share responsibility for the associated greenhouse gases emitted from the same operations, can they also share the benefits when SAF adoption increases?
The workshop introduced the concept of co-claiming, where multiple stakeholders make role-specific climate claims tied to the same underlying mitigation action without double-counting within any single accounting framework.Several themes emerged from the discussion at the workshop.
- First, integrity remains non-negotiable. Transparency, traceability, delivery verification, and assurance auditing were consistently identified as prerequisites for market confidence.
- Second, the distinction between co-claiming and problematic double-counting must be clear, simple, and defensible.
- Third, participants overwhelmingly supported moving toward a pilot program, but one designed for scale from the outset, with the infrastructure and allocation rules necessary to support broader adoption.
- Finally, there was broad recognition that carbon accounting alignment remains an open challenge requiring continued collaboration across standard setters and market participants.
The response from workshop participants was encouraging; they recognized both the urgency of scaling SAF and the limitations of expecting any single actor to bear the full cost of decarbonization. But, one of the most encouraging things was the level of engagement after the session ended. Conversations continued well beyond the workshop’s close, and stakeholders are already expressing interest in participating in the next phase of pilot development.
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Markets Matter
The theme of market development carried into the broader discussions at SAF Congress. During a panel assessing the state of the global SAF market, World Energy CEO Gene Gebolys joined industry leaders from ING, Moeve, INERATEC, Arcadia eFuels, and PwC to discuss whether the industry is finally moving from ambition to reality.
Gene emphasized a perspective that has guided World Energy’s approach from the beginning: markets matter. While policy remains essential, growing demand from Scope 3 customers is increasingly shaping the trajectory of SAF deployment. In the United States in 2025, voluntary purchases represented over 60 percent of the delivered SAF[1]. Companies across sectors are looking for credible ways to address aviation emissions within their value chains, creating new demand signals that help accelerate investment and production. Gene also highlighted the continuing importance of book & claim systems as a practical mechanism for connecting SAF supply with customers, regardless of where fuel is physically delivered, a concept that continues to generate discussion as the market evolves.
Collaboration Over Compliance
World Energy Chief Sustainability Officer Adam Klauber expanded on many of those ideas during a separate session with DHL’s Jan Lueckhof, focused on collaboration over compliance. Their discussion centered on a fundamental reality: aviation’s footprint is shared across the value chain, and solutions can be shared as well.
Building on the foundation of book & claim and SAF certificates, Adam outlined how the next generation of market mechanisms can open participation beyond today’s relatively small group of buyers. The goal is straightforward: spread both the cost and the value of cleaner fuel across more stakeholders, making SAF more accessible and more affordable. As Adam and Jan discussed, no single company can solve aviation decarbonization alone. But when airlines, logistics providers, financiers, fuel producers, airports, manufacturers, and corporate customers work together, the economics begin to change.
If there was one consistent message from Amsterdam, it was this: collaboration is no longer merely a friendly gesture without impact. Scaling SAF will require credible markets, shared investment, and innovative frameworks that enable every participant in the value chain to contribute. The momentum is real, but the challenge is to mobilize shared action for accelerated market and supply growth.
[1] Airlines for America (2026).
