The UK is also seeking input on its sustainable aviation fuel mandate and how it will line up with global supplies.
Airlines have welcomed the UK government’s announcement that it will launch a new £219 million ($293 million) fund aimed at developing the country’s advanced sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) market, but have expressed concerns about whether supplies will be sufficient for them to meet SAF mandates.
The government says the Low Carbon Fuels Fund is designed to “position the UK as a global hub” for SAF. It is inviting companies to bid for a share of an initial £93 million to develop advanced SAF over the next two years. The government is also seeking input from stakeholders on its SAF mandate and how its targets will line up with global supplies of SAF over the coming years.
The mandate as it stands calls for 2% of jet fuel supplied in the UK to be SAF in 2025, rising to 10% in 2030 and 22% in 2040. It also includes a sub-mandate for advanced power-to-liquid synthetic e-fuels, calling for this type of fuel to account for 0.2% of total jet fuel demand from 2028, rising to 3.5% by 2040.
It is this sub-mandate that airlines are particularly worried about. Tim Alderslade, chief executive of trade group Airlines UK, says that carriers are “concerned there will not be enough advanced SAF to meet the requirements of the UK sub-mandates”. He is calling for action “to avoid a situation where airlines are forced to pay penalties for fuel they cannot buy, increasing the costs of air travel for UK consumers”.
Airlines UK wants the sub-mandates to be adjusted, “to align with realistic supply”.
In the European Union – where the ReFuel EU mandate calls for 2% of SAF uplifted from the bloc’s airports to be SAF in 2025, rising to 70% in 2050, with a sub-mandate calling for synthetic e-fuels to account for 1.2% of jet fuel from 2030, increasing to 35% from 2050 – airlines have also expressed concerns about supplies.
“The issue is mainly the e-fuel facilities, which are not there yet,” KLM chief executive Marjan Rintel told FlightGlobal earlier this month. “There’s a mandate in 2030 but if the facilities aren’t there, the ability is not there and the price levels are 10 times the price of regular fuel, then it will be impossible for us to proceed.”
Rintel adds: “That’s the debate on the table: we need the support of energy initiatives of the EU with SAF firms or local governments to support this, like they did with wind energy, to get it done.”
Responding to the UK government’s new funding for advanced SAF, Jennifer Holmgren, chief executive of advanced SAF producer LanzaTech, says: “It will help companies like LanzaTech turn waste into green jet fuel, creating skilled jobs and economic growth, for example in Humberside, where we are developing a new SAF facility capable of supplying around 1% of the UK’s jet fuel demand.”
Holmgren adds that the call for evidence on future SAF targets is “an important step towards giving industry the long-term certainty needed to scale production and accelerate private investment today and beyond 2030”.
At its recent AGM in Rio de Janeiro, IATA warned that the industry’s goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2050 was in jeopardy. The trade body forecasts that SAF will account for just 0.8% of global jet fuel this year. The 2050 net zero target is dependent on 65% of the aviation industry’s fuel needs being met by SAF.
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