This article is part of a special report on Climate Solutions, covering efforts to make a difference around the world.
London — One day in late 2023, an almost empty commercial airliner is expected to take off in a transatlantic flight between the United Kingdom and the United States. Change.
Johnson is a distinctive booster, and the event was held by World War I veterans Jack Alcock and Arthur Brown in 1919, when they struggled from St. John’s in Newfoundland to Galway in Ireland. Compared to the brave first direct flight across the Atlantic Ocean by. ..
Grant Shapps, Johnson’s Minister of Transport, said next year’s flight is the dawn of an “era of innocent flight” for passengers worried that the aviation industry has contributed little to scrambling so far. It is nothing but. The world of “net zero”.
Why all the excitement? And is it guaranteed?
The flight is Sustainable aviation fuel or SAF, Jet fuel made from more environmentally friendly processes and raw materials, from edible oils, solid wastes and crop residues to synthetic kerosene made from hydrogen and recycled carbon.
Pollution still erupts from jet engines, but fuel is “sustainable” because much of the carbon emitted by fuel (up to 80% of the carbon emitted by regular fuel) has already been absorbed from the atmosphere by the raw materials. It is considered to be. If it couldn’t be converted to jet fuel, it was released anyway.
The UK government has labeled it a “net zero” flight, but you’ll probably still need some purchases. Carbon offset credit Sum the numbers.
And in order for flight to signal a real change in the impact of air travel on the environment, sustainable aviation fuel production needs to increase to very ambitious and distant levels. The goal requires huge investment in fuel production and infrastructure. Manufacturer.
For this and other reasons, some critics dismiss the flight as a gimmick to chase the headline.
Tim Johnson, director of the Aviation Environment Federation, a British campaign group belonging to the government’s “Jet Zero,” said: Advisory body.
In addition to the unrealistic predictions of fuel availability, both the government and the industry have not taxed aviation fuels or made other stringent policy or technological changes to reduce emissions. He said he plans to continue expanding numbers and flight miles.
Dan Rutherford, program director for the International Clean Transport Council, a Washington-based research institute, said the flight wasn’t as groundbreaking as expected. Percentage of sustainable fuel in one engine. Airbus did the same in France. The main hurdle for transatlantic ventures is to ensure a one-time exemption from fuel regulations that limits the total amount of sustainable fuel available to aircraft to a 50% blend with regular jet fuel.
In fact, when the UK government announced in May that it would host a competition between airlines and other industry players to participate in the flight, one of its goals was “a positive news article about the transition to SAF. It was to provide and increase. ” Consumer confidence in the safety and environmental benefits of the SAF. “
Similar to transatlantic flight, the aviation industry’s broader commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050 is a government initiative to support significant shortages and competition from the much cheaper traditional fuel kerosene. Despite the fact that there are few, it relies heavily on sustainable fuels.
“I’m confused by the fact that governments around the world aren’t paying attention to the fact that they aren’t capable of creating all the SAFs that everyone depends on,” said a senior executive in the UK fuel industry. Says. I don’t want him to be named so that he can protect his relationship with the government.
A spokesman for the Transport Association said last week that the group expects to produce 125 million liters of sustainable fuel from last year’s 100 million liters, but still well below 1 percent of total consumption. rice field.
In October 2021, the Association predicts that the 2050 target will require the production of 7.9 billion liters of sustainable fuel by 2025, increasing to 23 billion liters by 2030 and 449 billion liters by 2050. did.
A spokesman confirmed last week that 2025 production is likely to reach 5 billion liters, but the Transport Association has stated that the 2050 goal of more than 3,700 times this year’s production is “appropriate government policy. He claimed that he still believed that it was achievable “with support.”
Even the estimated 5 billion liter savings in 2025 would require a 40-fold increase in production in just three years, especially huge, as it would take three to ten years for a new refinery to come online. Oil company.
Prime Minister Johnson was asked by reporters about his decision to take a private jet from London to Cornwall instead of taking a four-hour train to attend a climate-focused summit last June. When he claimed to be a world leader, he protected himself about sustainable fuels.
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“If I attack my arrival by plane, I pay tribute to the UK’s actual leadership in the development of sustainable aviation fuels. 10 points of our Green Industrial Revolution One of the points of the plan is to reach Jet Zero as well as Net Zero. “
“The strangest statement I’ve heard about the whole issue,” said Rutherford of the International Council on Clean Transport.
“It was completely wrong and it was amazing that he stopped saying it,” he said. “In the UK, few commercial SAFs are produced. The United States has a large plant operating in Paramount, a suburb of Los Angeles, with production in Europe, but the UK is lagging behind.”
Since its first shipment in March this year, small quantities of sustainable fuel have been delivered to one airline, British Airways, from one plant, the Phillips 66 Hamburg refinery in northern England.
Texas-based Phillips 66 states that its hamburger plant can produce about 25 million liters annually and plans to increase it to more than 66 million liters by 2025.
The UK Government has funded £ 15 million ($ 18.4 million) on eight planned sustainable aviation fuel projects. “Companies are embarking on a pioneering SAF and stepping up efforts to support British industry,” said Robert Courts, Minister of Aviation. Raised £ 180m over the next three years. “
Actual progress remains slow. One of the companies that has won some of the UK Government’s funding for sustainable aviation fuels, Velocys, In 2019, it announced that it would begin production within five years at the Immingham refinery near the mouth of the Humber River.
Currently, on-site construction has not yet begun, and the company continues to say that it is five years from commercial production.
New UK policy announced during Farnborough AirshowJuly 18-22, use of minimum amounts of sustainable aviation fuel to stimulate demand for UK-based airlines for products that are about three times more expensive than kerosene jet fuel Is expected to include an obligation to enforce.
The European Union is in the process of forming a similar mission, but Mark Corbett, founder of Thrust Carbon, which builds software to help clients monitor emissions, said the shortfall was “serious investment by the industry.” And a sense of urgency and leadership Governments around the world. “