Sustainable aviation needs a value-chain approach: insights from Sébastien Justum

Sustainable transport is one of the areas where the Dutch-French Innovation Pact can turn dialogue into practical cooperation. In the conversation with Sébastien Justum, chair of the Pact’s working group on decarbonisation and sustainable transportation, the central message is straightforward: aviation is hard to decarbonise, progress depends on coordinated action across borders, and France and the Netherlands have a real opportunity to shape European solutions together.

Sébastien Justum is Deputy to the Corporate Secretary & Head of Public and International Affairs at Air France-KLM, and Chair of the Decarbonisation and Sustainable Transportation Working Group of the Dutch-French Innovation Pact. He has more than 15 years of experience in the intersection of industry, government and European policy.

Why this matters

Decarbonising aviation is one of Europe’s biggest industrial challenges. It cannot be solved by airlines alone, governments alone or technology alone. It requires coordinated action across the entire value chain.

That is exactly where the Dutch-French Innovation Pact creates value. By bringing together businesses, governments, knowledge institutions and investors, the Pact helps turn shared ambitions into concrete European solutions.

For Sébastien Justum, Chair of the Pact’s Decarbonisation and Sustainable Transportation Working Group, collaboration is the only way to accelerate sustainable aviation.

The challenge: financing innovation

According to Justum, sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) offer the greatest opportunity to reduce aviation emissions in the coming decades. Yet technology is not the biggest obstacle. The real challenge is financing.

Fuel producers need long-term customers before investing in new production facilities, while airlines cannot commit to significantly higher fuel prices without mechanisms that reduce financial risk. Breaking this cycle requires cooperation between industry, governments and financial institutions.

From dialogue to implementation

The working group is meant to be more than a discussion forum. According to Justum, it tries to balance visible deliverables with knowledge-sharing, while bringing together ministries, embassies, corporates and other relevant stakeholders around shared advocacy priorities.

One example is the draft SAF Manifesto, which explores how public guarantee schemes and long-term purchasing agreements could help unlock private investment in European production capacity.

As Justum explains, a long-term offtake agreement between an airline and an eSAF producer, supported by public risk-sharing mechanisms, could make new production facilities financially viable.

This is exactly the type of cross-border collaboration the Pact aims to facilitate.

Why it matters for business

The transition is not only relevant for airlines. It creates opportunities for fuel producers, airports, ports, equipment suppliers, engineering firms, hydrogen companies, infrastructure providers, financial institutions and innovative SMEs.

By connecting these organisations, the Dutch-French Innovation Pact helps identify investment opportunities, remove barriers and accelerate innovation across the Franco-Dutch ecosystem.

Building Europe’s competitiveness

For Justum, sustainable aviation is about more than climate policy. This transition also needs to preserve a level playing field for European aviation, so that ambitious climate policies reduce global emissions without shifting traffic and economic activity to less regulated markets. Therefore, it is about strengthening Europe’s industrial base, increasing energy resilience and reducing strategic dependencies.

France and the Netherlands both have strong research capabilities, industrial expertise and international ambitions. Together, they are well positioned to shape European policy and demonstrate how public-private cooperation can accelerate innovation.

Join the conversation

The Sustainable Transportation Working Group continues to expand its network and welcomes contributions from businesses across the value chain.
Whether through technology development, financing, infrastructure or market expertise, companies have an opportunity not only to participate in the transition, but to help shape it.

If your company, knowledge institution or societal organization is innovation driven and eager to collaborate within the Dutch–French ecosystem, we invite you to join the Dutch–French Innovation Pact.