Huge demand for animal fats to help create sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as airlines strive to become more sustainable will end up damaging the planet, a green group claims.
The consumption of biofuels using fats from slaughtered animals such as pigs is set to triple by 2030.
But Brussels-based Transport & Environment (T&E) warned that there will not be enough to scale it up sustainably.
Nearly half of all European animal fats already go into biodiesel, despite being used extensively in the pet food, soaps and cosmetics industries – which may be forced to opt instead for “damaging alternatives” such as palm oil.
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Animal fats are expected to be the most common ‘waste’ feedstock used in SAFs, alongside used cooking oil. Like all ‘waste’ biofuels, the availability of animal fats is limited.
“Scaling up industrial meat farming is neither doable nor desirable,” the organisation said.
A flight from Paris to New York needs 8,800 dead pigs, T&E’s calculations show.
T&E biofuels expert Barbara Smailagic said: “It turns out pigs will fly. For years we’ve been burning animal fats in cars without drivers knowing.
“Now they will be fuelling your next flight. But that can’t be sustained without depriving other sectors, which will in turn likely switch to damaging alternatives like palm oil.
“We need greater transparency so that consumers know what is going into their tanks and fuelling their flights.”
She added: “The competing uses for animal fats lay bare the challenge of scaling up waste biofuels production.
“Animal fats don’t grow on trees. Pet food suppliers, for example, will now have to reduce the sustainability of their products by using palm oil instead.
“And as we have seen with used cooking oil, this also increases the risk of fraud. The potential mislabelling of animal fats suggests fraud could be taking place on an industrial scale.”
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