Source: Aeropuertos y Servicios Auxiliares – ASA (Airports and Auxiliary Services) Mexico
- With the participation of officials from the Secretariats of Agriculture and Rural Development and Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation, as well as the National Committee for the Sustainable Development of Sugar Cane (CONADESUCA), the country’s potential to develop sustainable aviation fuels aviation from sugarcane ethanol was addressed.
As part of the work carried out by the Secretariat of Infrastructure, Communications and Transportation, led by Airports and Auxiliary Services (ASA), to achieve the goal that the Member States of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) have set, of zero net greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 (Net Zero), a working meeting was held, coordinated with the Ministry of Agriculture and CONADESUCA, as well as with representatives of the national organizations of sugarcane suppliers and the industrial sector.
During the meeting, jet fuel demand projections at the national level for 2030 and 2050 were announced, as well as the need to have sustainable aviation fuels’ production in the country to meet Mexico’s commitments to the ICAO, as part of the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction for International Civil Aviation (CORSIA), adopted since 2016 and with its first implementation phase in 2024.
Sustainable aviation or bioturbofuels have the same characteristics as jet fuel of fossil origin, but produced from plant or animal biomass, with a life cycle with low greenhouse gas emissions, so for the ICAO and the aviation sector makes them the main way to achieve the decarbonization of the sector.
In this sense and in accordance with the National Sugarcane Agroindustry Program 2021-2024 (PRONAC), the sugarcane agroindustry sector has extensive productive potential to continue guaranteeing food self-sufficiency in cane sugar. In turn, it can take advantage of current and future surpluses to supply and comply with the sustainability and quality standards required to obtain one of the raw materials with the greatest projection worldwide to produce sustainable aviation fuels from bioethanol.
In addition to the environmental benefits and emissions reduction, the use of bioethanol as a raw material for the production of sustainable aviation fuels under the ICAO sustainability criteria, this project represents a great opportunity for the diversification of the agribusiness sector of Sugarcane.
With the presence of guests from various government agencies, the ICAO Regional Office for North America, Central America and the Caribbean and the Federal Civil Aviation Agency, coincidences and possible collaborative actions were established between the agribusiness sector of the sugar cane and the aviation sector.
With defined actions, the Government of Mexico through the leadership of ASA, the SICT, Agriculture and CONADESUCA, is working towards the development of a new national agroindustry of sustainable aviation fuels in the country, which allows achieving the ICAO objectives towards the year 2050 and contribute to a better world for new generations.