Press release: E-kerosene producers need targeted book-and-claim in Sustainable Transport Investment Plan

Brussels, 15 October 2025: Yesterday, industry alliance the SASHA Coalition wrote a letter to European Commissioners and the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU recommending that a book-and-claim system for e-kerosene is introduced in the Sustainable Transport Investment Plan (STIP).

E-kerosene, also called synthetic aviation fuel, produced with renewable hydrogen, is the most sustainable and scalable alternative drop-in jet fuel. With over half of global production capacity based in Europe, the industry also offers the EU a huge opportunity for a competitive advantage in a growing global market worth €350bn.

But e-kerosene producers are struggling to achieve final investment decisions. This is due to project risk being pushed up by high capital costs and geographic disparities between producers, sited where renewable capacity is high, and early buyers in larger aviation hubs. These challenges are exacerbated by the lack of new supply chain infrastructure and access to existing assets restricted by fossil fuel companies.

The letter, from the coalition of companies leading in green aviation and maritime technologies, encourages its recipients to include measures in the STIP targeted at de-risking e-kerosene production, including a well-regulated book-and-claim system. Book-and-claim would allow a unit of e-kerosene to be sold to one buyer and its sustainable qualities to go to another. This would support producers to achieve more sales agreements, despite often large distances between where producers and buyers are located, and lower the risk premium on investment.

If not regulated properly, a book-and-claim system may inefficiently fund unsustainable alternative fuels like biofuels, as well as disproportionately benefit non-European industry, and leave supply chain infrastructure under-developed. A system must be well-regulated to best drive Europe’s Clean Industrial Deal goals, and comply with three conditions that it:

1. Operates just for e-kerosene, to give targeted support to the most sustainable but least mature alternative drop-in aviation fuel.

2. Operates just in the EEA, to concentrate competitiveness gains to European producers. 

3. Is timebound with an end-date, to ensure the physical infrastructure is developed to distribute e-kerosene across the EU in the long run. 

Delphine Kaczorowski, EU Advocacy Manager at the SASHA Coalition, said:   

The STIP could mark a watershed moment for European clean flight innovation, but only if it targets the most promising solutions including e-kerosene, the most sustainable and scalable drop-in alternative fuel. A book-and-claim system could be a crucial tool for unlocking clean competitive aviation, but including all alternative fuels would dilute impact and divert incentives to biofuels that are less sustainable, less competitive at scale, and less in need of support. When strategically limited to e-kerosene, book-and-claim can help Europe’s boldest clean aviation innovators overcome the market failures holding them back.

Nanna Baldvinsdóttir, CEO at IdunnH2, a member of the SASHA Coalition, said:

A book-and-claim system could help kickstart our sector, but only if strategically designed. Previously proposed book-and-claim models have lacked geographic bounds, clear time limits and strong criteria for eligible fuel – repeating this approach would undermine European energy security and inefficiently channel resources to less sustainable yet more easily available fuels. However, an appropriately time-bound book-and-claim system implemented just for European e-kerosene could help to unlock the windfall opportunity that our burgeoning industry offers Europe.

Alongside a book-and-claim system for European e-kerosene producers, the SASHA Coalition has called for the STIP to:

1. Implement a contracts for difference (CfD) financing mechanism for aviation and maritime e-fuels (double-sided auctioning).

2. Support the development and adoption of zero-carbon emission technologies by investing in hydrogen infrastructure in airports and use of green public service obligation (PSO) routes.

3. Encourage the expansion of the EU ETS to maximise available funds. 

— ENDS —

Media contact: 

Daniel Lubin 
Communications Officer, The SASHA Coalition
+44 7477427606 
daniel@opportunitygreen.org  

Notes to editors:

The Skies and Seas Hydrogen-fuels Accelerator (SASHA) Coalition brings together leading companies from across the green shipping and aviation ecosystems to advocate for UK and EU policy that supports the development and commercialisation of the most sustainable green hydrogen energy solutions. The initiative is facilitated by climate NGO Opportunity Green. 

The SASHA Coalition has advocated for the STIP to advance the most sustainable shipping and aviation solutions, including through a well-regulated book-and-claim system.

Research produced by the SASHA Coalition for its flagship report The Green Hydrogen Gap has previously demonstrated that only renewable hydrogen fuels including e-kerosene present the most credible paths to net zero flying, with e-kerosene today offering the most sustainable drop-in option for long-haul flights.

The SASHA Coalition’s Fuelling Nature report has since shown the inadequacy of biofuels for fulfilling shipping and aviation fuel demand in line with climate goals without undermining the EU’s biodiversity targets.