Brasilia’s ‘cockpit’ gives SAF full thrust

opinion

by Oscar Henderson

August 21, 2026

In 1957 Lúcio Costa won the contest to design Brazil’s new capital city, Brasilia. Along with architect Oscar Niemeyer, he came up with a different style of city to host the country’s administrative nerve centre.

The pair based Brasilia on the shape of an aircraft. The administrative buildings run along the fuselage, and housing districts run across the wings, known as North Wing and South Wing. The city boasts one of the most unique designs in the world. The design is still visible from the air today, even though the city has expanded a lot in the 69 years since it was designed.

On August 12th, Brazilian President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva published three decrees central to the country’s energy transition strategy and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) was front and centre. The signing fittingly took place in his official office in the Palacio do Planalto, the cockpit of Brasilia’s aircraft.

One of the three decrees is the National Aviation Fuel Program (ProBioQAV/SAF). This acts as the framework for Brazil’s SAF mandate, which was set out as part of the Fuels for the Future law in 2024.

Mandate scale up

The mandate is structured around emissions reductions, rather than blending requirements. Starting at 1% in 2027 the obligation is due to increase by one percentage point annually until there is a 10% obligation by 2037.

Compared with other SAF mandates around the world, this is a modest scale up. This is largely due to managing renewable fuel competition with road transport, Otavio Cavalett, senior director, Advanced Technical Services, SCS Global Services tells SAF Investor.

“With HEFA-based SAF, things get more complicated because, through the SAF mandate, there is always this concern on increasing the demand for biodiesel that would cause price inflation. We could see competition where SAF could increase prices of oil-based feedstocks,” says Cavalett.

Policy reversals

The policy timing is important with Brazil’s presidential election due to take place in October. Cavalett assures us that there is little danger of policy reversals, like those seen in the US in 2024, as developing the biofuel sector is a bipartisan priority in Brazil.

“RenovaBio [Brazil’s biofuel policy launched in 2017] was launched during a shift to a right-wing government and continued well supported in a left-wing government. I don’t think policy reversal is likely because the biofuel sector is recognised as important by both sides,” says Cavalett.

‘National book and claim’

The government has deliberately structured the policy to ensure growth of domestic Brazilian production whilst also reflecting the infrastructure logistic challenges the country has by embedding a book and claim system into the policy.

“The policymakers were concerned that a book and claim system that’s too open, you would produce it where you have incentives, for example in US or maybe even in Europe and then import the SAF credits,” Cavalett tells us.

“The way it’s designed looks that it’s a national book and claim that works for the within the country, for the different airports but not for an amount of SAF used internationally”.

All SAF produced in, or imported into Brazil, and then sold for domestic and international flights must be linked to a SAF Sustainability Certificate (CS-SAF) which can then be traded separately from the physical fuel. The certificates are valid for 18 months and must be retired (claimed) by the airline before expiration. The certificates produced under the National Aviation Fuel Program will also be cross recognised under other certification schemes and eligible under CORSIA.

The National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) will regulate the production, certification, blending and traceability on the production side. The National Civil Aviation Authority of Brazil (ANAC) will manage the compliance and verification for the airlines.

‘Huge signal’

One aspect of the policy that surprised Cavalett is how much of the mandate can be claimed by alternative methods. Alternate compliance methods include foreign SAF certificates, Lower Carbon Aviation Fuel (LCAF) and carbon credits, to account for gaps in SAF supply.

“This document is very specific that alternative methods are aiming to reach up to 5% by 2030. This means that nearly all of it is going to have to be filled in with SAF and that’s great news and a huge signal to SAF producers,” says Cavalett.

The limit will gradually drop leading up to 2030. The limit will begin at 15% in 2027 and 2028 and will drop to 10% in 2029, before the 5% limit in 2030.

The National Aviation Fuel Program so far has been met with positivity. “I think everyone is happy with the policy. I haven’t heard of anyone complaining about it,” says Cavalett.

There are still some clarifications on implementations from ANP and ANAC, but this policy announcement shows SAF market acceleration is a strong focus in Brasilia’s cockpit.