Air, Freight News

IATA Creates CADO to Manage SAF Registry

[ April 2, 2025   //   Gary Burrows ]

The International Air Transport Association has established the Civil Aviation Decarbonization Organization, or CADO, to manage the IATA-developed Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or SAF, Registry once it is released.

CADO is incorporated as a Canadian not-for-profit organization headquartered in Montreal. IATA is the founding member of CADO and its role in CADO will include ongoing technical support and operations.

IATA’s SAF Registry as a global system to standardize and transparently record SAF transactions and ensures that SAFs environmental benefits can be tracked throughout the SAF value chain and enable the claiming of these against regulatory obligations and voluntary schemes by airlines and corporate customers.

The SAF Registry is expected to solve the challenge of limited SAF supply – which is acutely scarce and available in only a few locations globally –by connecting airlines with SAF producers and suppliers, regardless of their geographical location. In addition, it gives access to airlines’ corporate customers to in-sector emissions reductions and capitalizes on firms’ capacity to co-finance the cost of decarbonization.

Participation in the SAF Registry will be free until April 2027, after which it will be operated on a cost recovery basis.

CADO membership is open to:

• Organizations 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 organizations with a direct interest in the operations and benefit of the SAF Registry.

• Related interest groups indirectly benefitting from SAF deployed in the aviation system.

“CADO will turbocharge 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. “In fact, the door is open for any stakeholder in the SAF value chain, including governments, to join CADO. This inclusive approach should also be a force for the harmonization of the principles on which all SAF registries operate.”

IATA Director General Willie Walsh said: “The SAF Registry is a critical piece of market infrastructure that is indispensable in building a global, transparent, and liquid global market for SAF. The industry’s commitment to build the Registry and establish CADO to manage it should inspire governments, fossil fuel producers, and investors to engage in the SAF market with commensurate vigor. Ramping-up SAF production is the common goal and the structure we are putting in place with CADO is an important step in moving decarbonization forward.”

Tags: IATA, SAF Registry