Every year, the United Nations community celebrates International Mother Earth Day on April 22nd. The 55th Anniversary of Earth Day is also something that we are celebrating this year, with the theme: Our Power, Our Planet.
Earth Day 2025 calls for commitment to harness renewable energy to build a healthy, sustainable, equitable and prosperous future for all, and for global renewable energy generation to be tripled by 2030. It further recognised the widespread benefits of the development and deployment of renewable energy—not only as an environmental imperative, but also as a driver of economic opportunity.
ICAO has been a strong advocate for the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), defined as renewable or waste-derived aviation fuels that meets sustainability criteria, as a key pathway to aviation decarbonization. Notably, the technical analysis we have carried out shows that SAF has the greatest potential to reduce CO2 emissions from International Aviation.
During the 41st ICAO Assembly in 2022, ICAO Member States adopted a collective long-term global aspirational goal (LTAG) of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. In 2023, ICAO further adopted a comprehensive ICAO Global Framework for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF), Lower Carbon Aviation Fuels (LCAF) and other Aviation Cleaner Energies, which included a Vision for reducing CO₂ emissions in international aviation by 5 per cent by 2030 through SAF and cleaner energies. This aligns with Earth Day 2025’s call to accelerate the global expansion of renewable energy by 2030.
To support use of SAFs and other aviation cleaner energies, ICAO has been implementing a comprehensive set of initiatives under the four building blocks of the ICAO Global Framework:
- Policy and Planning
- Regulatory Framework
- Implementation Support
- Financing
Our work to advance the use of SAFs was detailed in this article in commemoration of the International Day of Clean Energy, with more information shared here.
We will be holding the 2025 ICAO Aviation Climate Week, with the theme Skyward Action: Realizing Aviation’s Sustainable Future, from 2 to 4 June 2025, at ICAO Headquarters in Montréal, Canada. During Climate Week we will be discussing the implementation of the ICAO Global Framework, advancing the ICAO Assistance, Capacity-building and Training for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (ACT-SAF) programme, and elaborating on other key environmental developments.
As we celebrate Earth Day 2025, we call on all ICAO Member States, the aviation industry, and relevant international organizations to continue collaborating closely with us to advance aviation energy transition towards a sustainable future for aviation!
