That is according to Cait Hewitt, policy director at Aviation Environment Federation, who warned Travel Weekly’s Sustainability Summit the sector does “not yet have the technologies” required to achieve the target, set in October at an assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

Her statement came after Matthew Gorman MBE, Heathrow’s carbon strategy director, said he thought the goal was achievable if the sector acts quickly and has sufficient government support.

“There are four big things we need to do to take the carbon out of flying, but the most important thing to say is we can do it [achieve net zero],” he told delegates.

“A lot of the debate globally centres around the fact it’s really challenging to decarbonise aviation, and we are told we need to take flying out of society rather than take carbon out of flying.

“We have to anchor back to the fact we can do it as we all know about the amazing things international connectivity brings, but we need to move quickly as an industry and we need the government to act fast to scale up the technologies to take the carbon out of flying.”

Gorman said greater efficiency is a “fundamental baseline” for cutting emissions from aviation, adding it is vital the sector adopts the use of SAF as quickly as possible while modernising aircraft to make it compatible with hydrogen technology.  [See link ]

“We see SAF as vital because it cuts carbon and it’s a drop-in fuel which means it can be used in today’s pipelines and planes,” added Gorman, adding the research and development of hydrogen technologies must be heavily supported.

However, Hewitt was less optimistic that aviation can achieve carbon neutrality within the next 30 years, labelling the target “almost impossible”.

“I’ve heard all kinds of promises from the aviation sector about cutting emissions, and while it’s true that emissions are reducing on a per-passenger basis, overall emissions are not,” she said, referencing research from before the Covid pandemic that showed aviation emissions in the UK were at their highest-ever level.

“To achieve net zero for the climate, an emissions-intensity metric is not going to get us there; we need to have net zero emissions from every activity in our society,” added Hewitt.

“That’s enormously challenging; it’s almost impossible. Aviation does not yet have the technologies ready to roll out that most other sectors do.

“Our view as an organisation is that it won’t be possible to deliver all the reductions we need to see in aviation within 30 years without cutting the number of people flying.”

https://travelweekly.co.uk/news/air/reduction-in-flying-only-way-to-achieve-net-zero-warns-sustainability-expert

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See also

 

Airbus boss warns of delay in decarbonising airline industry – “green” hydrogen and SAF not available in large amounts

Head of Airbus, Guillaume Faury, says there is a shortage of allegedly low carbon fuels, so-called “Sustainable Aviation Fuel” (SAF). He said this is slowing the uptake of SAF. He had concerns about the pace of investment in facilities to produce “green” hydrogen and SAF.  “Green” hydrogen, produced from water using zero-carbon electricity, offers one possible solution, while SAF, made from plant or other wastes or using carbon from the air, can be used in existing gas turbine engines. The hope is that, although SAF burns to create CO2, there is less overall CO2 in the fuel lifecycle than using conventional jet kerosene. Airbus wants to fly zero-emissions hydrogen aircraft in commercial service by 2035 but Faury said this may be later, due to the lack of “green” hydrogen. With every other sector aiming to use genuinely low carbon, renewably generated electricity, is there enough to use on producing jet fuel, largely for discretionary leisure trips?  Rolls Royce and EasyJet are also making efforts to test engines fuelled by hydrogen. So far it has been burned in a jet engine, on the ground, not on a plane in flight.  SAF supplies are likely to remain relatively limited for years.

Click here to view full story…

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Aviation calls on UK government to subsidise ‘Jet Zero’ push

Sector seeks more support to get fledgling green fuel industry off the ground

By Jim Pickard in London (FT)

NOVEMBER 7 2022

Britain will struggle to create an industry producing sustainable aviation fuel unless the government provides regular subsidies to manufacturers, leading airlines and airports have warned.

The government has set a 2050 “Jet Zero” target for the airline industry to eliminate net carbon emissions, mainly through the use of green fuel produced by household waste such as cooking oil, known as “SAF”.

The government has promised £165mn as seed capital to encourage manufacturers to open at least five plants producing the new fuel and hopes they will be under construction by 2025. It has also set a target under which 10% of aviation fuel must be SAF by 2030.

But leading airports and airlines, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester Airports Group, Virgin Atlantic and British Airways have written to Mark Harper, the new transport secretary, calling for more state intervention to get the fledgling industry off the ground.

The letter, seen by the Financial Times, is also signed by some of the manufacturers with plans for SAF plants in the UK, including Fulcrum, Velocys and Alfanar.

“We believe UK SAF production has the chance to become a domestic success story, but the government needs to act now to ensure manufacturers get the price certainty needed to unlock private investment into this sector,” the groups wrote.

They want the government to create “contracts for difference” (CFDs) to agree a set price for SAF, similar to those the state has used to underwrite nuclear and offshore wind projects.

Under CFDs, when wholesale prices exceed a fixed level producers pay back the difference to the government. When the market rate is below the fixed price, the government tops up the difference.

The letter warns that without this kind of regular subsidy, investors will go elsewhere and airlines will end up importing sustainable fuel from the EU or US.

“To stimulate billions of pounds of investment in UK industry requires targeted action and further direction must be taken to share the current investor risk profile that is a barrier to capital investment in UK production,” the letter says. “The only question is do we make our own SAF, creating jobs and growth for the UK, or do we import it from other countries?”

Flying is one of the hardest industries to decarbonise and technologies such as electricity- or hydrogen-powered aircraft are years away from being able to make long-distance flights.

Aviation accounts for about 2% of global CO₂ emissions and the International Air Transport Association’s (Iata) net zero 2050 target relies heavily on changing fuel mixes to achieve most of its planned reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.

Other countries, including Indonesia, have sought to produce aviation fuel from crops such as palm oil or soyabean oil, prompting concern from environmentalists.

A spokesperson for the Department for Transport said the UK government already had a SAF programme which was one of the most comprehensive in the world.

“We’ve already invested in eight SAF plants, [we] now have a further £165mn available through our Advanced Fuel Fund, and are creating demand by mandating that 10% of jet fuel comes from SAF by 2030,” the spokesperson said.

“This is providing investors with reassurance while helping to deliver our ambition of having five commercial SAF plants under construction in the UK by 2025.”

https://www.ft.com/content/9a3ed7af-9637-4c03-bbc9-f1d8dcefe2c7

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