Cooking oil won’t be enough to make aviation sustainable

illuminem summarizes for you the essential news of the day. Read the full piece on POLITICO or enjoy below:

🗞️ Driving the news: Sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs), such as those made from used cooking oil or crops, are not sufficient to decarbonize the aviation industry, which is responsible for about 2.5% of global CO2 emissions
• There is growing pressure to find more sustainable solutions as demand for SAFs outpaces production capacity

🔭 The context: The EU and the UK have set mandates for increasing SAF blends with conventional jet fuel by 2025, while the US has subsidized SAF production through the Inflation Reduction Act
• However, SAFs are costly, and the production is insufficient to meet global aviation needs

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Relying on SAFs made from crops or waste poses risks to food production and biodiversity, and the supply of materials like used cooking oil is limited
• There are concerns about the sustainability and scalability of these solutions, necessitating the exploration of alternative methods like eSAF

⏭️ What's next: The UK is focusing on second- and third-generation technologies, such as eSAF, despite its high costs and technical challenges
• The US remains cautious about diverting renewable energy to produce eSAF due to its higher carbon reduction potential when used directly for electricity

💬 One quote: “Provided we all want a growing and sustainable aviation industry, at some point there won’t be enough biomass and you’ll have to go to eSAF.” — Steven Barrett, Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge

📈 One stat: Green fuels can cost up to six times more than kerosene

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