Singapore SAF Levy
Framework levying a charge on departing flights to fund SAF procurement. Live and operational. Singapore is GSC's home jurisdiction and the first Southeast Asian country with a functioning SAF funding mechanism.
SAF 101
What Is Sustainable Aviation Fuel?
A market briefing from operators, not a whitepaper from consultants. SAF is the most consequential shift in aviation fuel since the industry standardised on kerosene. This is what you need to know.
SAF in 90 Seconds
Sustainable aviation fuel is a drop-in replacement for conventional jet fuel, produced from non-petroleum feedstocks. It is chemically compatible with existing aircraft engines and fuelling infrastructure — no fleet modification required.
Production Pathways
HEFA
Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids. The dominant commercial pathway today. Feedstocks include used cooking oil (UCO), animal fats, and other waste lipids. Mature, certified, and trading at scale.
AtJ
Alcohol-to-Jet. Converts ethanol or other alcohols into jet fuel. Multiple producers scaling toward commercial volumes. Feedstock flexibility is the advantage.
PtL
Power-to-Liquid. Synthesises fuel from captured CO₂ and green hydrogen. The lowest-carbon pathway — and the furthest from commercial scale. Long-term potential, limited current supply.
Co-processing
Blending bio-feedstocks into existing refinery processes. Lower capital cost, limited SAF yield per batch. A bridge pathway for refineries transitioning capacity.
The Price Premium
SAF trades at a premium to conventional jet fuel — historically three-to-four times the price. This gap is compressing as production scales, feedstock supply chains mature, and carbon pricing mechanisms raise the effective cost of fossil alternatives. The convergence trend is real, but SAF is not yet cost-competitive without regulatory drivers.
02 — Regulations Singapore Global Europe Asia-Pacific
The Global Mandate Wave
SAF mandates are not hypothetical. They are live, binding, and expanding. Singapore leads in Asia-Pacific. CORSIA covers international routes. RefuelEU structures the European market. This is a global compliance wave, not a European initiative.
CORSIA
Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation. ICAO's global mandate covering international routes. Airlines on covered routes must offset or reduce emissions — SAF is a primary compliance pathway.
RefuelEU
EU regulation mandating minimum SAF blending at EU airports. Starting at 2% in 2025, scaling to 70% by 2050. Creates a structured, long-term demand signal that underpins investment in production capacity.
Emerging Mandates
Japan, South Korea, India, and other Asia-Pacific economies are developing SAF frameworks. The regulatory wave is not limited to Europe — Asia-Pacific is moving faster than most observers expect.
The Terms That Matter
These terms are used precisely in the SAF market. Understanding them is the difference between participating in the market and reading about it.
Mass Balance
An accounting method that tracks SAF volumes through blended supply chains. When SAF is physically mixed with conventional jet fuel at a pipeline or storage facility, mass balance accounting ensures that the certified quantity claimed downstream matches the certified quantity injected upstream. No double-counting. No leakage.
Book & Claim
A mechanism that decouples the environmental attributes of SAF from the physical molecules. A buyer can purchase SAF credits — backed by verified production — and claim the emissions reduction without requiring physical delivery of SAF to their specific airport. This is how corporate Scope 3 targets are met across fragmented travel patterns.
ISCC EU
International Sustainability and Carbon Certification. The dominant chain-of-custody certification standard for SAF in Europe and increasingly globally. ISCC EU certification ensures that feedstock sourcing, production processes, and supply chain handling meet sustainability criteria. Required for compliance under RefuelEU.
Emissions Scopes & SAF
The GHG Protocol divides emissions into three scopes. Scope 1 covers direct emissions — for an airline, the fuel burned in its engines. Scope 2 covers purchased energy such as ground operations electricity, and is not directly relevant to SAF. Scope 3 covers indirect value-chain emissions, including business travel on third-party flights.
Scope 3 is where SAF matters most. For corporates with significant air travel, SAF — physical or via Book & Claim — is the primary mechanism for reducing aviation-related Scope 3 emissions. This drives the voluntary SAF market alongside regulatory mandates.
04 — Why Now Back to Global SAF Corp. →
Mandates Are Live. Deadlines Are Real.
Singapore's SAF levy is operational. RefuelEU's 2% blending mandate is in force. CORSIA's mandatory phase is underway. These are not future commitments — they are current compliance obligations with enforcement mechanisms and financial penalties.
The market needs infrastructure, not whitepapers. It needs operators who can move physical fuel, track chain of custody, and manage the compliance layer across jurisdictions. It needs digital systems built by people who understand how fuel trades — not marketplace brochures from outsiders.
GSC is that infrastructure. Brokerage, trading, and the GSC SAF Stack — built from inside the industry, operating now, scaling with the mandates.