Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance launches platform to help COP30 attendees cut flight emissions

The Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance announced Sept. 22 a new initiative to enable COP30 attendees to support the clean-energy transition and address emissions from their air travel to and from the UN-hosted climate convening in Belém, Brazil, in November. 

The COP30 SAF platform empowers conference attendees to calculate and address their aviation-related emissions by supporting sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) that meets SABA’s world-leading sustainability criteria.  

In this first of a kind opportunity, the platform is available to all COP30 attendees, including those who are not currently SABA members, as part of a concentrated effort to raise the visibility of SAF and scale funding and adoption of this key climate technology.   

“Having been to 18 COPs myself, I know COP attendees face a dilemma—flight emissions,” said Kim Carnahan, CEO of the Center for Green Market Activation and head of SABA secretariat. “With the COP30 SAF platform, those travelers now have a way to calculate and decarbonize their flight emissions no matter their point of departure or the aircraft they fly on, while supporting real-world deployment of sustainable aviation fuel.  This is the latest SABA innovation helping connect SAF producers with willing buyers who want to decarbonize their air travel.”  

The SAF supported through the new platform is sourced from SkyNRG as the result of a streamlined, competitive procurement process initiated by SABA earlier this year. 

“SkyNRG is proud to be the SAF supplier for SABA’s COP30 campaign,” said Theye Veen, chief commercial officer and co-founder of SkyNRG. “We are uniquely positioned as SAF knowledge experts with more than a decade of experience in building supply chains, partnerships and sustainability standards for high-integrity SAF. We’re pleased to be deepening our collaboration with SABA and we’re excited to help expand SAFc access beyond its membership. The innovative COP30 SAF platform from SABA demonstrates our aligned vision of making SAF more accessible and, in turn, helping the industry to scale.” 

SABA’s COP30 initiative is unique because it gives conference goers all the resources they need to decarbonize their COP air travel on a single platform.  

Attendees first estimate their flight emissions using one of two methods.  

For commercial flights, travelers will use Google’s Travel Impact Model, an industry-leading calculation tool, while travelers on private jets will use the Eurocontrol Small Emitters tool.  

Next, attendees purchase a corresponding quantity of high-integrity SAF certificates prevetted by SABA, and later receive a retirement statement from the SAFc Registry, which ensures the transaction meets best-in-class chain-of-custody requirements.  

The platform supports those traveling via commercial and private aircraft—crucial flexibility given that as many as 65 private jets travel to COP in a given year. 

“Not all sustainable aviation fuels are created equal—which is why the SABA SAF platform is such a useful tool for conference attendees wanting to reduce their emissions from traveling to COP30,” said Elizabeth Sturcken with the Environmental Defense Fund. “For SAF to be high integrity, it must meet rigorous environmental standards grounded in science. SABA has done the hard work of vetting the best-in-class SAF so buyers can feel confident their purchase will deliver a meaningful climate impact, while sending a clear message to policymakers and the market that high integrity SAF is in demand.”  

While SAF currently makes up only a small percentage of the total aviation-fuels market, SABA’s procurements allow voluntary buyers to support SAF production through investment in SAF certificates connected with an established, high-integrity book-and-claim system.  

Book and claim allows parties to invest in SAF and capture its environmental benefits, even if the fuel does not flow directly into the planes they fly on.  

Purchasing SAF certificates enables companies to make a greenhouse-gas emissions-reduction claim in their climate disclosures. 

“Global forums like COP30 are pivotal for elevating the visibility of leading-edge climate solutions,” said Bryan Fisher, the managing director at RMI. “By leveraging SAF certificates, we’re not just addressing travel emissions, we’re demonstrating that market-based tools play a role critical in unlocking project finance, scaling production and accelerating adoption of clean-fuel technologies. A powerful demand signal, combined with trusted market infrastructure like the SAFc Registry and SABA’s sustainability framework, can drive real investment, innovation and impact.”  

Since launching in 2021, SABA has helped channel approximately $200 million total SAF investment.  

The SABA COP30 SAFc procurement is the third SABA procurement to launch in 2025, following the introduction of SAFc Connect, a secure online platform to help connect corporate buyers with SAFc providers, and SABA’s next-generation SAF procurement that is designed to help move a next-generation SAF facility to final investment decision. 

The COP30 SAFc procurement platform is hosted by the Center for Green Market Aviation, which is the SABA secretariat.