By Peacock Kaweesa
The Uganda Civil Aviation Authority in partnership with the EU-CORSIA Africa and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency have called for sustainable aviation fuels to combat carbon emissions in the global airspace.
This was revealed at the official launch of the 3days’ meeting organized at the Speke Resort Munyonyo.
This national workshop on the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), and CORSIA Eligible Fuels (CEF) is timely to raise commitment on environmental issues and carbon emissions under the supervision of ICAO, said UCAA Ag Director General Olive Lumonye.
This stakeholders’ meeting is aimed at calling for collective action and shared responsibility in reducing carbon emissions plus fuel efficiency, said report.
In the same spirit, when Uganda started participating in the EU-CORSIA project, our view was to join the international community in supporting the established standards, policies and strategies set to limit and mitigate the impact of aviation carbon emissions on the global climate, said Ms Olive Lumonye.
In our efforts to fully participate in the EU CORSIA project, Uganda is among the few States that received support in designing and setting up of greenhouse gas emissions, data reporting mechanism and national emissions inventory, she noted.
UCAA fully identifies with the project aims of supporting targeted States to raise their ambition in terms of commitments towards ICAO’s recommendations and aspirational goals on reducing CO2 emissions from international aviation using all mechanisms as suggested and designed by ICAO, revealed report.
Uganda has benefited immensely in respect to capacity building for Carbon emission mitigation from aviation activities to European Union funding for all project activities to benefit African States.
Uganda is among the few States that have received support in designing and setting up of greenhouse gas emissions, data reporting mechanism and national emissions inventory.
Two weeks ago, the project assisted UCAA install the Aviation Emissions Data Management System (AEDMS), platform that will help Uganda collect, store and process airline fuel consumption and carbon emissions data as well as related greenhouse gas emissions.
In addition, the platform is also critical for tracking, reporting and verification of carbon emission reports from airline operators.
This will ensure systematic analysis and validation of available emissions and air traffic data as well as fuel consumption data and look forward to successfully operationalize this system, revealed UCAA Ag Director General.
Uganda is prepared to take necessary action and advance initiatives on aviation environmental protection including action on Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), in line with ICAO principle of “No Country Left Behind”, she noted.
The initiative for promoting green aviation fuels is framed in the ICAO Global Framework for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), Lower Carbon Aviation Fuels (LCAF) and other Aviation Cleaner Energies adopted in the third ICAO Conference on Aviation and Alternative Fuels (CAAF/3) in 2023.
ICAO and its Member States, including Uganda, established the Global collective aspiration to reduce aviation Carbon emissions by 5% in 2030 through the use of SAF and cleaner energies.
This calls for our continuous efforts towards achieving this collective aspirational goal and also call upon the European Union to consider extending this project into a second phase with particular interest in assisting African States explore their potential in production and use of SAF.
Since inception of the project in 2019, it has been dedicated to support African States to raise knowledge and understanding of aviation’s climate change impacts and related policy measures through dedicated workshops and training courses while promoting engagement with national aviation and environment entities as well as regional bodies.
Uganda has started work on assessment of our SAF potential and in April 2025, UCAA organized a kick-off workshop for the feasibility study to identify and promote opportunities for sustainable aviation fuel programme in Uganda.
