Book & Claim is an approach to the buying and selling of fuel much like how green electricity is sold and bought. When you purchase green electricity (RECs or iRECs) you know it has been added to the grid, the national electricity supply, from renewable sources but the supply may not be in your own house. With green electricity you buy an amount, a subscription or credits. Sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) can be purchased in the same way and then added to the global supply of jet fuel. SAF must be blended, re-tested for stability and can then mix with standard jet fuel.
The global mechanisms and the companies starting to use Book & Claim are currently under development and at a pilot stage, and the European Commission also reviewing if this should be regulated.
The European Commission consultations such as ‘Count your transport emissions‘ is looking into what this system should look like.
What are the benefits of Book & Claim?
- It saves carbon due to reduced emissions from transportation of the fuel
- Supply management – as the fuel can stay in the country it is produced in and uplifted there, while still acting as an offset in another it means transport timings, logistics arrangements and location of the fuel is less of a risk as supply chains are shorter
- Shipping fuel can run into high delays and so Book & Claim mitigates for this
- Any airport close to the fuel can therefore uplift the fuel
- Reduces the cost of transport (via ship or road) and therefore the cost of SAF, as it can be up to 3 times as expensive then any cost saving is needed right now to make is closer to the cost of kerosene (Jet-A1)
- The credit or agreement can offset emmissions from travel and does not need to be tied to one airline
For more information on SAF or Book & Claim contact sarah@flygreenalliance.org
