Environmental Defense India Foundation – MOHD ZEESHAN ALI – 2025
Summary
Mohd Zeeshan Ali conducted a pioneering scoping and strategy study to accelerate sustainable aviation fuel adoption in India.
Goals
The Climate Corps Fellow Mohd Zeeshan Ali joined Environmental Defense India Foundation to conduct an in-depth landscape scoping of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in India’s aviation sector’to identify opportunities, barriers, and actionable pathways for sectoral emissions reduction.
Solutions
Tasked with this challenge, Ali led research and industry engagements to map India’s SAF readiness, feedstock potential, and technological options. Drawing on six years in industrial operations and sustainability, he evaluated the regulatory frameworks, including India’s Green Aviation Policy and international standards like ICAO’s CORSIA. Solution strategies included expert interviews & discussions, techno-economic analysis, policy gap assessment, and benchmarking global best practices. Collaboration with airlines, manufacturers, and fuel producers enriched insights, while prior field experience enabled the identification of practical barriers in supply chains and certification. Recommendations centered on mechanisms for scaling SAF, improving certification, and market-financing approaches’a synthesis designed to move India closer toward its climate goals.
Potential Impact
The analysis indicated that, if implemented, India could achieve annual reductions of up to 21 million metric tons of CO’ emissions with a 10% SAF blend by 2040’positioning it as a global leader in sustainable aviation. The project’s broader impact lies in catalyzing cross-sector collaboration, informing upcoming national policies, and building technical evidence for industry transitions. The work also underscores substantial job creation potential and advances in energy security, making aviation’s green shift a model for other sectors.
