Mitigating emissions from air freight: Unlocking the potential of SAF with book and claim

“The SAF is key to decarbonising the aviation sector,” believes Raman Ojha, president of Shell Aviation. “However, the adoption and penetration of the SAF has not increased significantly. It is not due to a lack of production capacity, but there are a lot of things at play. Reserving and demanding in this context helps bridge this gap.”

Bridge the gap with writers and prompts

The book and claim is a chain of custody model, where the flow of administrative records is not necessarily linked to the physical product through the supply chain (Source: ISO 22095:2020).

Capturing and claiming potentially enables airlines and businesses to access the life cycle GHG emissions reduction benefits of SAF compared to conventional jet fuel even when SAF is not physically available at their locations; This model helps bridge the gap between this concentrated supply and global demand, so that the availability of the Sudanese Armed Forces improves.

“To be bold, without a book and a claim, no science-based goal will be achieved in the short term,” says Bettina Paschke, Vice President ESG Accounting, Reporting and Oversight at DHL Express. “The book and prompt are essential to achieving science-based goals.”

She reiterated that “SAF production facilities are not everywhere.” “They are very focused on one location, and if the customer wanted to meet the overall balance commitment, they would have to ship the SAF around the world just to be at that airport for that customer. That would be very complex and very unrealistic.” It will also, unexpectedly, increase overall emissions. By using hold and claim instead, air cargo operators can capture the benefits of reducing SAF’s life cycle GHG emissions compared to conventional jet fuel now, without waiting for supply to increase. “This may not be needed when we have SAF product facilities at every airport in the future,” she points out. “But right now, that’s not the case.”

At DHL itself, the mechanism has become central to achieving its three interconnected sustainability pillars, which focus on decarbonising logistics supply chains, supporting customers towards achieving their decarbonisation targets, and ensuring reliable emissions claims can be shared along the value chain.

Demonstrating the importance of a reliable and viable framework for reservations and claims systems is also what inspired the launch in 2022 of Shell’s Avelia, one of SAF’s first blockchain-powered digital reservations and claims solutions for aviation, which in 2024 expanded to include air cargo as well as business travel. Depending on the offering, Avelia offers freight forwarders the opportunity to share the benefits of reducing SAF life cycle greenhouse gas emissions compared to conventional jet fuel across the value chain with shippers that use its services.

“It is also backed by a physical supply chain, giving our customers – be they corporates, freight forwarders or even airlines – peace of mind that the SAF has been injected into a particular airport, has been used and the environmental attributes are tracked, with the help of blockchain, to where they will retire,” says Oja.