IATA establishes CADO to boost SAF market

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) announced the launch of the Civil Aviation Decarbonization Organization (CADO) to manage the sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) Registry.

The new non-profit organisation, headquartered in Montreal, Canada, aims to create a transparent and global platform for tracking sustainable fuel transactions.

“CADO will turbo-charge the imminent launch of the IATA-developed SAF Registry. Its mandate is to manage the SAF Registry as a separate entity from IATA with an open and global approach that supports the scrutiny needed to build trust among all stakeholders,” said Marie Owens Thomsen, IATA’s senior vice president sustainability and chief economist.

She said that the door is open for any stakeholder in the SAF value chain, including governments, to join CADO.

CADO membership will be open to organisations that operate in or contribute directly to the SAF value chain, or that represent any association or group of participants in the SAF value chain, states or quasi-state organisations with a direct interest in the operations and benefit of the SAF registry and related interest groups indirectly benefitting from SAF deployed in the aviation system.

IATA is currently in the process of developing SAF Registry to record SAF transactions in a standardised and transparent way. The IATA says the registry will ensure environmental benefits of SAF can be tracked as they move across the SAF value chain and enable the claiming of these against regulatory obligations and voluntary schemes by airlines and corporate customers.

The association said that participation in the SAF Registry will be free until April 2027, after which it will be operated on a cost recovery basis.