The International Air Transport Association (IATA) will hold the third World Sustainability Symposium (WSS) in Hong Kong, China, on October 21-22, 2025, hosted by Cathay Pacific.
The event will bring together leaders from aviation, energy, finance, and policy to advance the industry’s commitment to achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2050.
The symposium is timed to follow the 42nd ICAO Assembly, where the industry will have advocated for stronger government policies to support aviation’s energy transition to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and the integrity of CORSIA, and to precede COP30, which will focus on turning pledges into actions. It will explore measures to accelerate aviation’s decarbonisation, including removing obstacles to SAF production, attracting financing for the estimated US$4.7 trillion cost of decarbonisation, integrating emerging technologies by existing players and start-ups, and increasing collaboration across the value chain.
The symposium will open with a welcome speech from Ronald Lam, CEO of the Cathay Group, and a keynote address from Mable Chan, secretary of transport and logistics for the Hong Kong Government. This will be followed by a leadership conversation between Patrick Healy, chair of the Cathay Group, and Willie Walsh, IATA’s director general, reviewing progress on decarbonisation.
Other speakers include Jun Ma, chairman and president of the Hong Kong Green Finance Association; Fabiano Piccino, air logistics global head of sustainability at Kuehne+Nagel; Jouk Boeye, managing director of corporate sourcing, supply chain sustainability and net zero operations at HSBC; Christopher Au, director of the Asia Pacific Climate Risk Centre at WTW; and Ayesha Choudhury, chief commercial officer at Infinium.
Cathay Group’s Lam remarked: “Collaboration across multiple sectors and regulators is essential for aviation to achieve its decarbonisation goals, and gatherings like this provide a valuable platform for leading voices to come together to drive meaningful change. Such cooperation is especially important as the industry works to develop the ecosystem of SAF, with Hong Kong having the potential to become one of Asia’s major centres for SAF in the future.”
“This event is an essential rallying call for all those who have a stake in air transport’s future to overcome any challenges in the way of accelerating the pace of this crucial energy transition,” said IATA’s Walsh.
“Decarbonising the airline industry is not just an industry issue but part of the global energy-transition that cuts across the whole world economy. If treated as such, adopting a holistic approach encompassing policy, energy and finance to agriculture, technology and more, it will be possible to achieve net-zero CO2 emissions in 2050,” added Marie Owens Thomsen, senior vice president of sustainability and chief economist, IATA.
