Climate Policy Engagement Analysis
Climate Policy Engagement Overview: The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is actively and negatively engaged with climate policy for aviation at global, regional, and national levels in 2023-25. While IATA supported a 2050 net-zero target for international aviation, it has opposed ambitious regional and national climate regulation for aviation, including an extension of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, an EU sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) mandate and a flight cap at Schiphol airport.
Top-line Messaging on Climate Policy: IATA supported net-zero CO2 emissions from international aviation and the goals of the Paris Agreement in a September 2024 policy roadmap. However, in an April 2025 Reuters article, IATA CEO, Willie Walsh, appeared unsupportive of the 2050 goal and called for it to be reevaluated. In a December 2024 fact sheet, IATA further appeared to use support for global policy to oppose regional and national climate policies for aviation. In a November 2024 blog post, IATA supported incentives and investment in response to climate change while opposing taxation. Similarly, in a November 2024 Politico article, Walsh supported deregulation in the US, opposed environmental taxation and advocated for EU climate regulation to be removed or ‘improved’.
Engagement with Climate-Related Regulations: In a June 2023 fact sheet IATA advocated for the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation’s (CORSIA’s) baseline to be 85% of 2019 emissions for CORSIA from 2023 onwards, a weaker baseline than the original policy proposal. Similarly, in a December 2024 fact sheet, IATA supported the amended CORSIA baseline of 2019 emissions for 2021-2023, and a baseline of 85% of 2019 emissions from 2023 onwards. In a September 2024 Policy Roadmap, IATA appeared to support the International Civil Aviation Organization’s 2030 5% CO2 emissions reduction standard through SAF. However, IATA CEO, Willie Walsh, opposed the target in an April 2025 Reuters article.
IATA consistently opposed the extension of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to extra-EEA flights, including in a December 2024 blog by IATA CEO, Willie Walsh, an April 2023 blog post and February 2024 Airlines Magazine article. In a July 2024 consultation response, IATA opposed a full scope monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) framework under the EU ETS that includes extra-EEA flights and emphasized challenges with the framework. IATA echoed its opposition to the EU’s non-CO2 monitoring, reporting and verification scheme in an April 2024 letter to the Executive Vice President for the European Green Deal.
IATA frequently appeared to oppose a stringent EU SAF mandate, while supporting SAF incentives, including in a December 2024 policy briefing. On its webpage, accessed in April 2025, IATA supported SAF incentives but advocated that they are technology and feedstock-agnostic. In a February 2025 Position Paper, IATA opposed Germany’s power-to-liquid quota and appeared unsupportive of the EU’s SAF mandate. IATA similarly appeared to oppose the EU SAF mandate in a January 2025 policy brief. Comments from IATA’s CEO, Willie Walsh, reported by Reuters in June 2023, echoed this opposition.
In a June 2023 consultation response, accessed via FOI request, IATA advocated for the UK’s 2025 and 2030 mandates to be aligned with ReFuelEU while conditioning support on complementary policies and opposing a power-to-liquid sub-mandate until 2035. In a May 2024 blog post, IATA supported the adopted ‘low’ power-to-liquid sub-mandate and advocated against a ‘premature’ increase to the sub-mandate.
Through the ‘SAF BTC Coalition’ IATA supported the US SAF blenders tax credit in February 2023 US regulatory comments. However, in the same response, IATA appeared to advocate for weaker sustainability criteria for SAFs to protect land-based carbon stores under the SAF blenders tax credit.
Positioning on Energy Transition: IATA actively opposed numerous measures to decarbonize aviation. In a June 2023 fact sheet and a February 2025 Policy Paper, IATA opposed the EU kerosene tax and in a December 2024 fact sheet appeared to question the legality of jet fuel taxation. IATA further appeared to oppose Germany’s kerosene tax in a December 2023 press release, opposed an increase to France’s passenger ticket tax in a December 2024 policy brief and supported the abolition of Sweden’s ticket tax in a September 2024 press release. IATA CEO, Willie Walsh, also advocated for the removal of the UK’s Air Passenger Duty tax in a January 2025 press release.
A March 2023 IATA press release stated that IATA was taking legal action to oppose the Dutch government's policy to reduce flights at Schiphol airport, while a July 2023 KLM press release disclosed opposition from IATA on the Court of Appeals approval of a flight cap at Schiphol airport. An April 2025 press release echoed opposition to the flight cap.
However, in a September 2024 policy roadmap, IATA supported the phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies. IATA also supported redirecting fossil fuel subsidies to SAFs in a June 2024 consultation response.
InfluenceMap collects and assesses evidence of corporate climate policy engagement on a weekly basis, depending on the availability of information from each specific data source (for more information see our methodology). While this analysis flows through to the company’s scores each week, the summary above is updated periodically. This summary was last updated in Q2 2025.