The 12 months of SASHA
The SASHA Coalition turned one in May – but we’ve achieved so much more than hitting our first birthday this year. So, as 2024 comes to a close, our Policy Assistant Sabrina looks back on not one, not two, but 12(!) of our greatest successes in these ‘12 months of SASHA’…
One biodiversity report
SASHA’s pride and joy this year was our biodiversity report, Fuelling nature: how e-fuels can mitigate biodiversity risk in EU aviation and maritime policy, released just last month. With consultancy Cerulogy, we found that if the EU powers ahead with using biofuels to decarbonise shipping and aviation it will puts biodiversity at serious risk. The results also showed that e-fuels are the only alternative fuel for these sectors that is compatible with EU biodiversity targets – and it just happens to be the one with that reduces the most emissions.
Read the biodiversity report executive summary.
Two webinars
We hosted two great webinars in 2024 with a fantastic roster of panellists. In May, we discussed green hydrogen’s integral role to the UK’s green growth agenda. Our brilliant panellists concluded that we need infrastructure policy, clarity on fuels that will help decarbonise shipping and aviation, and that we must focus on increasing renewable energy generation.
Watch back the webinar, and read our summary.
Taking the focus over to the EU, in August we discussed why green hydrogen in the EU needs stronger policy and our panellists explained how crucial research, development and demonstration are.
Three event panels
We really did the rounds this year dashing across the country – and indeed the continent – to share our thoughts at different events. Our Director Aoife spoke at the Sustainable Skies World Summit in Farnborough, where she explained the sustainability and land-use issues of some SAF feedstocks, and that green hydrogen solutions are the only truly sustainable fuel for aviation long-term. We also spoke Aviation Carbon about expanding aviation at the SAF Congress in Amsterdam, where we discussed how to ensure the aviation industry doesn't adopt less-than-sustainable alternative fuels and should instead focus on green hydrogen solutions.
Our Director Aoife speaking at the Sustainable Skies World Summit
Four new members
This year we welcomed four amazing new members to the Coalition: MCG, Ecojet, Arcadia eFuels and Oneiros Aerospace.
MCG is creating a technology platform for global maritime shipping logistics using blockchain-enabled traceability.
Ecojet, founded by Dale Vince, aims to become the world's first electric airline using a fleet of aircraft powered by renewable energy.
Aviation consultancy Oneiros Aerospace provides innovation solutions and targeted investments to drive sustainable growth in the aerospace industry.
Finally, Arcadia eFuels is a leading e-kerosene producer building its first site Denmark, and with other projects planned for the UK and USA.
Five industry insights
My brilliant colleague Daniel (Communications and Policy Assistant) interviewed five of our members this year to launch the Industry Insights blog series, getting the ins and outs of our membership’s work and the challenges they face.
Read Daniel’s interviews with...
Martin Nielsen from Arcadia eFuels
Scott Pendry from Cranfield Aerospace Solutions
Clinton Liu from MCG
Keith Lawless from SAF+ International Group
Antoon van Coillie of Zulu Associates
Six consultation responses
We got stuck into policy this year and sent responses to a grand total of six consultations in the UK and EU.
In the EU, we responded to consultations on the monitoring, reporting and verification of greenhouse gas emissions from offshore ships and the draft Implementing Act on Flight Emission Labels.
In the UK, we responded to the Business and Trade Committee’s Industrial Policy Enquiry, the Invest 2035 consultation, the SAF revenue certainty mechanism consultation, as well input on the Autumn Budget.
Seven factsheets
Despite its major role in decarbonising aviation and shipping, green hydrogen suffers from a lack of understanding – and policy. We decided it was time to get the facts straight and wrote seven factsheets to help policymakers understand the importance of green hydrogen for getting shipping and aviation to net zero.
Read our green hydrogen factsheets.
Eight media appearances
Cards on the table, we got more than eight media mentions this year (go us!) – but we had to downplay it a bit to get the numbers right.
Here are some of the highlights…
The year opened with an op-ed in Euractiv and letter to the Financial Times explaining that the EU taxonomy misleads investors on what is actually ‘green’, as well as coverage in Canary Media.
Soon after Safety4Sea covered our commentary on the EU Commission’s decision to include international shipping (but not aviation...) in its 2040 targets.
We discussed the need for more ambition in long-awaited UK SAF mandate with Green Air News, as well as in another letter to the FT.
As summer brought a heavy election season we told Euractiv, Hydrogen Insight, and Green Mobility Magazine why green hydrogen needs to be high on the agendas of both the new UK government and European Parliament.
Take a read of all our media appearances.
Nine events as delegates
You might have seen the SASHA team around and about this year – not a surprise, since we made appearances at a whopping nine different events this year, including...
COP29 in Baku
The SAF Congress
Future Proof Shipping’s second hydrogen vessel launch
We came away with a huge range of insights, from the aviation and shipping industries’ main concerns when confronted with decarbonisation, such as the cost and availability of green hydrogen, to international initiatives bringing green hydrogen to the fore.
The SASHA team with Mike Kane at the Labour Party conference 2024
Ten percent SAF in 2030 (in the UK SAF mandate)
On 25 April 2024, the UK Government released its long-awaited SAF mandate to ramp up so-called sustainable aviation fuels’ production. The mandate obliges 10% of all jet fuel in the UK to be SAF by 2030. In terms of green hydrogen-derived fuels for aviation, this is set at 0.5% of total jet fuel demand by 2030. This e-fuel sub-mandate could be more ambitious, so we look forward to working with our members and Government to further this.
Eleven blog posts
From celebrating our first birthday, to writing about our trip to Liverpool for the Labour Party Conference, we churned out a healthy amount of blogs highlighting ours and our members’ work. But the blog with the raked in the most reads across the year was our Policy Officer Nuala’s on the UK SAF mandate!
Dive into all our blogs for more on our work.
Twelve great months for SASHA
So, that’s a wrap for this year – and we’ve not even been able to mention everything! We had some brilliant collaborations with our friends at Climate Catalyst and EPICO, to name just a couple of items not mentioned above.
We’ll leave you with some final words from our Director, Aoife O’Leary:
I couldn't be more thrilled by SASHA and our members' extraordinary successes this year! When we launched the coalition just a year and a half ago who could have foreseen our outstanding impact? The collective voice we’ve galvanised is now making serious waves shifting the policy dial on decarbonising shipping and aviation.
What's 2025 got in store for us? Well... keep your eyes peeled for our new Brussels office, fresh policy advocacy, and our upcoming interventions in mobilising the aviation and shipping industries to get the green policy they need in place. Watch this space...
If our work excites you, get in touch to work out how we can collaborate in the new year.
