Tackling Climate Challenges through Space
Amelia Space Technologies is proud to be part of a UK Space Agency initiative announced during World Space Week 2025, supporting projects that use space data to tackle climate challenges. Through the Climate Services Call, Amelia is developing a satellite-enabled verification system that helps prove when agricultural waste really qualifies as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) feedstock. As global aviation faces legally binding sustainability targets, this project provides something the sector urgently needs: a scalable, objective, and digital way to verify waste-based feedstocks.
Policy demands
From 2025, aviation fuel suppliers in the UK must ensure that at least 2 percent of total jet fuel comes from SAF, rising to 10 percent by 2030 and 22 percent by 2040, under the UK SAF Mandate. In the European Union, the ReFuelEU Aviation Regulation sets similar obligations: 2 percent in 2025, 6 percent in 2030, 20 percent in 2035, 34 percent in 2040, and 70 percent by 2050.
These mandates will generate millions of tonnes of SAF demand within the decade. However, each tonne must meet strict sustainability criteria. The challenge isn't producing the fuel. It's proving that the material used to make it is genuinely waste, not diverted crops or virgin biomass.
Today, verification usually means manual audits, on-site inspections, and long chains of paperwork. Certification can take months. For the scale of feedstock needed to meet global mandates, that process is far too slow.
Satellite verification as a solution
Every day, satellites orbiting Earth capture data on agricultural land: crop types, harvest cycles, residue cover, and even damage after extreme weather. With the right analytics, that imagery becomes evidence.
Amelia Space Technologies transforms this data into actionable intelligence. Using machine-learning models trained on agricultural patterns, the system identifies crop residues, damaged harvests, and pruning waste that qualify as sustainable feedstock. These detections are cross-referenced with land-registry data, harvest timing, and meteorological records to confirm that the material is indeed waste, not a food crop or newly grown biomass.
The result is an auditable verification report that aligns with RSB and ISCC certification standards — documentation that fuel producers can integrate directly into their compliance processes.
This is verification at planetary scale: continuous, consistent, and automated. Instead of inspecting fields one by one, the verification happens from orbit.
The scale of the opportunity
By 2030, the UK alone will need roughly 1.2 million tonnes of SAF per year to meet its 10 percent mandate. Across Europe, the target rises to nearly 2.8 million tonnes.
All of this fuel must come from waste and residue sources — used cooking oil, municipal waste, and agricultural by-products. Among these, agricultural waste is one of the most practical and abundant. Yet, much of it remains uncollected because there is no reliable way to verify its sustainability at scale.
- For farmers and cooperatives, that's a missed revenue opportunity. Verified sustainable waste sells at a premium, turning low-value residue into meaningful income. - For SAF producers, sourcing verified feedstock remains one of the biggest bottlenecks. - For airlines and fuel suppliers, compliance is mandatory — and traceability is non-negotiable.
Amelia's verification infrastructure addresses all three challenges simultaneously.
How it works
- Satellite imagery snapshots showing the residue in context. - Temporal analysis proving when and how the material was generated. - Automated documentation formatted for certification submission.
The process integrates with existing sustainability frameworks rather than replacing them and supplies a key component of the evidence chain required by certification bodies.
Different stakeholders, one verification infrastructure
- Farmers & agricultural cooperatives gain new market access and premium pricing for verified residues. - SAF producers dramatically shorten compliance timelines with pre-verified feedstock. - Airlines & fuel suppliers gain transparent, traceable sourcing and simpler reporting. - Certification bodies receive objective, continuous evidence that complements their existing assessment methods.
This project, supported by the UK Space Agency's Climate Services Programme, demonstrates how satellite technology can move beyond observation into verification, accountability, and impact.
It's a practical example of how the UK's space sector can accelerate climate progress on Earth by turning planetary data into planetary intelligence.
Amelia Space Technologies invites partners across the SAF value chain — producers, feedstock suppliers, airlines, and certification bodies — to join in shaping this infrastructure. Together, we can make verified waste a global standard and sustainable aviation fuel a mainstream reality.