Book-and-Claim Accounting Emerges as Key Mechanism for Corporations to Address Scope 3 Aviation Emissions via SAF Certificates

Book-and-Claim accounting lets corporations worldwide buy the environmental benefits of Sustainable Aviation Fuel through tradable digital certificates (SAFc) without needing the physical fuel present at their own airport, addressing the fact that SAF production is concentrated in California and Europe. An airline burns physical SAF at an SAF-equipped airport in the "Book" phase, while a corporate buyer elsewhere purchases the SAFc representing that fuel's environmental benefit in the "Claim" phase, tied to Scope 3 reporting requirements from regulators such as the SEC and the EU's CSRD, covering categories like cargo shipping and employee business travel.

The mechanism bridges the "Green Premium": fossil jet fuel costs about $2.00–$3.00 per gallon versus roughly $6.00–$8.00 for SAF, with airlines paying the fossil-fuel price while corporate buyers cover the roughly $4.00 premium via the SAFc, letting producers recover full costs. To prevent double-counting, standards from bodies including the Smart Freight Centre restrict the airline to a Scope 1 claim while the certificate buyer claims the Scope 3 reduction, with certificates managed on registries such as the RSB Book and Claim System, permanently retired with unique serial numbers under Mass Balance rules requiring SAF injection within the same macro-region as the claimed flight.

The Sustainable Aviation Buyers Alliance, which includes Meta, JPMorgan Chase and Boeing, executed a multi-year SAF certificate procurement in April 2024 committing nearly $200 million to help producers finance additional refinery capacity. A comparable "Pooling" mechanism exists in maritime shipping under the EU's FuelEU Maritime regulation, and booking platforms such as Concur are integrating Book-and-Claim to automatically purchase fractional SAFc for employee flights and apply them to corporate Scope 3 ledgers.