Biofuelwatch to publish report about aviation biofuels ahead of ICAO high-level conference

From 11th to 13th October, ICAO will be holding a High-Level Conference on Alternative Aviation Fuels, in Mexico City.  ICAO’s Secretariat has published a proposed “Vision” which would see 128 million tonnes of biofuels per year used in aircraft by 2040 and 285 million tonnes by 2050. By comparison, a total of 82 million tonnes of biofuels was produced worldwide for all uses last year. ICAO and airlines are keen to promote biofuels as solution to their CO2 problems. Greater efficiencies cannot possibly cancel out the impacts on CO2 emissions of the industry’s expected rapid, continuous growth. Meaningful measures to curb aviation CO2 emissions would be incompatible with an airline’s shareholder profits. The aviation sector hopes to use carbon offsetting (condemned by over 100 civil society groups last year) and biofuels (which, contrary to scientific evidence, continue to be largely classified as zero carbon).  There is no possibility of producing the vast quantities of biofuels that would be needed for such an endeavour without disastrous impacts on forests, on the climate, on food prices, food sovereignty, on human rights and land rights. The prospect of even limited use of biofuels in aircraft is particularly concerning, especially if palm oil is used. There will be a new report on 6th October, and a Webinair on 6th October (4pm).

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Biofuelwatch to publish report about aviation biofuels ahead of high-level international conference

join webinar on 6th October

From 11th to 13th October, the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) will be holding a High-Level Conference on Alternative Aviation Fuels in Mexico City.
ICAO is a specialised UN agency which works closely with the industry.  Its Secretariat has published a proposed “Vision” which would see 128 million tonnes of biofuels a year used in aircraft by 2040 and 285 million tonnes by 2050. By comparison, a total of 82 million tonnes of biofuels was produced worldwide for all uses last year.
There is a simple reason why ICAO and airlines promote biofuels: greenhouse gas emissions from aviation are growing faster than those from almost any other sector. There are no alternatives to burning liquid fuels in aircraft on the horizon. Greater efficiency cannot possibly cancel out the impacts of growth.
Meaningful measures to curb carbon emissions from aviation would be incompatible with a company’s shareholder profits. Hence, the industry – and ICAO – have embraced the concept of “carbon neutral growth”, which they claim they can achieve largely through a combination of carbon offsetting (condemned by over 100 civil society groups last year) and biofuels (which, contrary to scientific evidence, continue to be largely classified as zero carbon).
There is no possibility of producing the vast quantities of biofuels that would be needed for such an endeavour without disastrous impacts on forests, on the climate, on food prices and food sovereignty, and on human rights and land rights. The prospect of even limited use of biofuels in aircraft is particularly concerning:
Biofuelwatch has closely studied technology and industry developments and has found that the only mature technology for making such biofuels is one that relies on vegetable oils and animal fats. And the only commercially feasible feedstock (except for very tiny amounts of such fuels) is palm oil.
However much airlines might prefer to use other types of biofuels, there is no realistic prospect that they could achieve even limited biofuel blend levels without palm oil.
Biofuelwatch will be publishing our report on our website on 6th October.
Please tune in to their webinar on the same day (4pm UK time, 11am Eastern US time) to hear an overview and ask questions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=37g0CcNeRFM