The UK is in danger of falling behind in the race to produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at the volumes required to meet a government target of 10% SAF use by 2030.
That is according to Heathrow chief operating officer Emma Gilthorpe, chief executive of the Jet Zero Council set up by the government.
Gilthorpe told the Airlines 2022 conference in London: “We have the mandate to have 10% SAF by 2030. [But] SAF is three to four times more expensive than jet fuel. We need a bridge between the price of jet fuel and SAF to get investment moving.”
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She explained: “The industry would favour ‘contracts for difference’ – where the government guarantees a price. If the market price is above, the government gets money back. If it’s below, the government bridges the gap.
“The question is where does the money come from? One route would be to use emissions trading scheme (ETS) revenue, but we fear the Treasury has designs on that.”
Gilthorpe noted the EU “agreed to invest 50% of ETS revenue” and the US government plans to provide $400 billion in incentives to produce SAF, arguing: “The US wants to corner this market. We need to make progress.”
British Airways director of sustainability Carrie Harris told the conference: “SAF could deliver 50% of BA’s aviation fuel by 2050 and fulfil about 30% of our emissions reductions.
“We’re 25% of the way to securing enough SAF supply by 2030. We’ve announced five SAF plants and there will be more.
But we could make faster progress if we had the right incentives. We could operate the whole fleet on SAF by 2050 but the manufacturing capacity will probably set limits on that.”
Harris noted BA introduced “the first commercial-scale use of SAF” in March, saying: “Every BA flight departing Heathrow has a tiny bit of SAF in there. The issue is scaling up.”
Shell head of aviation for Europe Ashleigh McDougal argued: “We need $1.45 trillion globally to achieve what the industry needs.”
Gilthorpe described 2030 as “a pivot point” and said: “We need to know the investment pathways. This is high-risk, long-term investment. An investor needs to understand the price [of SAF] for at least a decade [ahead].”
She added: “The Jet Zero Council brings government, industry and academia together to solve the problems of reaching net zero by 2050. There are two pathways: the first is SAF, the second is zero-emission flight [using] hydrogen.
“The council is not a decision-making body. But often the government puts out a consultation and gets one answer from an airline, another from an airport, another from a fuel manufacturer. We sort that out.”
Photo: Shutterstock.com
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