Today, SAF scale-up faces several challenges, but the most pressing, along with the high cost, is a limited supply, concentrated in a few geographic locations. The solution to that is to enable access to SAF’s environmental benefits beyond physical fuel delivery, allowing airlines and corporates to claim SAF use without physically flying it (also known as the Book & Claim approach). However, without a robust tracking system, SAF claims risk being unverifiable, duplicative, or inconsistent. That’s where registries come into play.
By decoupling SAF environmental attributes from physical molecules, registries ensure that SAF’s climate attributes can be securely tracked, transferred, reported and claimed, regardless of where the fuel is burned.
Registries are increasingly connecting stakeholders across the entire value chain, spanning producers, suppliers, aircraft operators, intermediaries, freight forwarders, and corporate end-users, covering every link in the SAF ecosystem and enabling an equitable distribution of the SAF “green premium”.
With growing pressure to meet mandatory requirements under schemes like CORSIA and EU ETS, registries can help facilitate regulatory compliance, foster harmonization across jurisdictions and help prevent double-claiming, especially when connecting with other systems through interoperability agreements. Achieving this, however, will require strong buy-in and participation from states to ensure broad implementation and global trust.
Launched in April 2025, with an expanded release in September, the CADO SAF Registry connects over 100 organizations. Grounded in the IATA SAF Accounting & Reporting Methodology, which complements ICAO SARPs, the Registry aligns with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol to ensure integrity and full traceability across the SAF value chain.
Similarly to other registries, the process of tracing environmental attributes begins with registration, where producers, suppliers, or airlines upload verified sustainability documentation. This information is registered in the system, and SAF batches are converted into SFUs (digital twins of physical batches), able to circulate within the Registry.
While the CADO’s SAF Registry is one of several in the market, the message is clear: as aviation accelerates decarbonization efforts, registries stand out as a trusted digital backbone for SAF tracking, simplifying participation, strengthening credibility, and enabling collaboration to support widespread adoption and progress toward net-zero, one verified SFU at a time.
The Civil Aviation Decarbonization Organization (CADO) was created in March 2025 to maintain and operate the IATA-developed SAF Registry. It is a not-for-profit organization established under Canadian Law with its headquarters in Montreal. CADO’s founding member is IATA which provides ongoing technical and operational support for the SAF Registry.
Contact info@cado.org to receive the latest news about the Registry.
Author: Beatrice Cordiano, Assistant Manager Sustainability Programs, IATA
