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UK prime minister slams “pathetic” sustainable aviation fuel targets
November 3rd 2021
UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, has attacked targets for the use of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) as “pathetic” during the United Nation COP26 climate conference in Glasgow. Read More » "The target at the moment is to achieve 10% of sustainable aviation fuel for the whole world by 2030,’’ he said. “How pathetic is that! We can do better than that, folks." The comments come as airlines have been urging governments to back SAF production as part of plans to reach net-zero industry carbon emissions by 2050. The industry hopes SAF will abate 65% of the 1.8 gigatons of carbon it will need to mitigate annually by the net-zero deadline. But a series of milestones released by the International Air Transport Association last month showed industry expectations are even lower than the levels criticised by Johnson. These predict SAF production in 2030 will be 23 billion litres, or 5.2% of the industry’s total fuel requirements. The good news is SAF production is expected to increase to 91 billion litres, or 17% of total fuel production, by 2035. This target also is roughly the time frame that electric or hydrogen-powered aircraft are forecast to become available in the 50-100 seat regional market - for trips of 30 to 90 minutes. Johnson, who is under fire for using an aircraft to attend the conference, conceded aviation was “a tough nut to crack” and called on conference participants to be more ambitious. Defending his decision to fly to the conference instead of taking a train, Johnson said it was due to time constraints and added his plane used a SAF blend.
