Aviation’s Net-Zero Journey: Time for Hard Choices and Bold Commitment Juan Carlos Salazar, Secretary General, ICAO

Aviation’s Net-Zero Journey: Time for Hard Choices and Bold Commitment Juan Carlos Salazar, Secretary General, ICAO

For decades, civil aviation has been an engine of globalization, prosperity, and human connection. Yet it continues to face a defining test: whether it can decarbonize quickly enough to remain both viable and valued in a climate-constrained economy. As airlines, manufacturers, investors, and regulators gather for climate-focused talks at ICAO later this month, commentators won’t be asking "Can aviation decarbonize?" (it can), but rather "Will the global community make the hard choices required, at the pace that reality demands?"

For ICAO, the answer can only be yes.

Aviation’s targets, including ICAO’s ambition to see net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, are widely accepted. But this goodwill must now drive a dramatic acceleration in implementation. Past progress—incremental efficiency gains, early blending of sustainable aviation fuels, modest operational improvements—offers a model, yet the scale required for true transformation is far greater. If decarbonization progresses in a fragmented manner, the sector risks not only missing climate targets but also forfeiting public trust.

Remaining on track for net-zero aviation will require a sustained, multi-decade investment at a global scale. Recent years have indeed seen a surge in financing and research, from more efficient propulsion systems to operational digitalization and new investments in sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). Now, projections show that SAF alone must deliver over half the sector’s emissions reductions, mobilizing capital into energy production and supply chain infrastructure is now an especially urgent priority. 

Here, ICAO is actively working to expand access to finance through new platforms like the Finvest Hub, which connects project developers to institutional and private capital—particularly in regions where access to funding has lagged. ICAO’s support programmes, such as Assistance, Capacity-building and Training for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (ACT-SAF) and Assistance, Capacity-building and Training program designed to help States implement measures toward achieving the Long-Term Global Aspirational Goal (ACT-LTAG),are helping countries develop the capacity, policy foundations, and technical infrastructure needed to participate fully in the transition.

Coherent and harmonized standards are also critical. Governments and international bodies must send clear regulatory signals and coordinate standards that can unlock both innovation and financing. ICAO has responded by developing and adopting a set of global standards for cleaner aviation energy, as well as new, more rigorous environmental standards for aircraft themselves, providing the regulatory certainty required for industry and investors to act at scale. Our sustainability criteria and certification systems for SAF help ensure that rapid scale-up does not come at the expense of environmental integrity or market trust. Only clear standards create the regulatory certainty needed for massive, long-term investments in infrastructure and innovation.

More than 150 Member States, representing over 99 percent of global air traffic, have already submitted action plans under ICAO’s environmental protection framework. But this too is not enough.

This June, delegates will be gathering for ICAO Aviation Climate Week, which is the first meeting of its kind since States unanimously adopted ICAO’s objectives for carbon emissions in October last year. Joining industry, technical experts, and financiers, governments will have the chance to join ICAO capacity-building initiatives, participate in technical workshops to strengthen their emissions monitoring and reporting, engage directly with the Finvest Hub, and establish new partnerships or pilot projects. This means that what happens at Climate Week could set the tempo for aviation’s decarbonization efforts in the crucial years ahead.

Aviation’s history has been shaped by moments of shared reckoning and bold innovation. This is one of them. If industry and governments choose cooperation with urgency at ICAO, a net-zero aviation sector within this generation is within reach. If not, the sector may find itself grounded by a climate reality it cannot escape.