World Energy and Microsoft join forces to drive aviation decarbonisation

This agreement highlights World Energy's ability to enable companies from all sectors of the economy to participate in decarbonising the hard-to-abate aviation sector. The agreement connects Microsoft's ambitious decarbonisation goals directly and verifiably with SAF via a Book & Claim tracking framework.

Spanning ten years, this is the longest SAFc Book & Claim agreement ever signed. It is expected to deliver significant decarbonisation results. An estimated 43.7 million gal. of petroleum jet fuel will be displaced with low-carbon SAF. The emissions reduction is expected to exceed 469 000 t of CO₂. That is the equivalent of flying 824 053 economy class passengers from Seattle to New York and back on fully decarbonised flights, or decarbonising the transportation of over 54 000 t of cargo between Asia and North America.

"We're thrilled to be launching this long-term collaboration with Microsoft," said Gene Gebolys, CEO of World Energy. "Through this agreement, we will empower one of the world's most recognised innovators to grow their business while minimising their carbon impact and together we're committing to making a sustained push well into the next decade to decarbonise aviation at ever greater scale. Microsoft has made some the most ambitious decarbonisation commitments of any corporate leader and we are honoured to be teaming up to help them meet those goals."

"This agreement exemplifies the power of collaboration and technology in driving meaningful change in one of the hardest-to-abate sectors," said Katie Ross, Director, Carbon Reduction Strategy and Market Development, Microsoft. "Not only will it help to reduce our business travel and supply chain logistics emissions, but we hope this agreement will inspire others to take action and support the transition to alternative fuels that will enable a decarbonised aviation industry."

This agreement will also help establish broader trust in digital monitoring and verification for SAFc. With SAFc, the fuel's environmental attributes are separated from the fuel itself and are purchased by a partner as part of their decarbonisation programme. The physical production and use of the SAF is tied specifically to the certificates, independently accredited, transparently tracked, and third-party verified using a digital chain of custody system referred to as 'Book & Claim'. This enables both airlines and corporate leaders, such as Microsoft, to support the decarbonisation benefits of SAF without having to take delivery of physical fuel.

Read the article online at: https://www.hydrocarbonengineering.com/clean-fuels/03102023/world-energy-and-microsoft-join-forces-to-drive-aviation-decarbonisation/