Government Policy Action Is Key to the Large-Scale Deployment of Aviation Biofuels, Hears ICAO Seminar

(GreenAir Online) Although sustainable alternative fuels are key to meeting the aviation sector’s long-term emissions goals, supportive government policies are required to bring these fuels to global deployment. This was a central theme of last week’s ICAO Seminar on Alternative Fuels in Montreal that brought together a range of stakeholders including biofuel producers, regulators, the airline and aerospace sectors, and government representatives. The seminar was a precursor to a high-level ICAO Conference on Alternative Fuels to be held in Mexico City next October in which States will convene to devise strategies for developing commercial-scale supplies of sustainable jet fuels. Speakers at the seminar said policy efforts were required to reduce financial risk, ensure a level playing field with other transport sectors and create public-private partnerships. The seminar was also a chance for biofuel producers and airlines to provide updates on alternative fuel projects.

... said Dr Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu, ICAO Council President, at the opening of the seminar. “More must be done, and sustainable fuels are now poised to make important contributions with respect to near-term gains. We will therefore be focusing greater attention this year on policies to enhance the use of alternative fuels.”

While the technological feasibility of alternative jet fuels may be fully proven, he said, barriers to large-scale deployment remained. “The most significant challenge restricting their demand continues to be the price gap with conventional fuels, which in turn limits investment in the new refineries needed to scale up production,” he told delegates. “This is precisely the sort of negative cycle we must work to reverse.”

Possible solutions, he proposed, would include more long-term agreements between airlines and biofuel producers in order to ensure continuous demand and sufficient supply, together with incentive schemes and amendments to national energy policies.

Dr Aliu reported that ICAO’s Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP) was working on future projections in alternative fuels production and their life-cycle environmental benefits. The accounting methodology of these benefits, he said, will be incorporated into the eventual monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) system for ICAO’s CORSIA carbon offsetting scheme. CAEP is due to submit its MRV proposals shortly, he added, and would be considered for adoption by the ICAO Council later this year.

She (Jane Hupe, ICAO Deputy Director Environment) said the ICAO 2016 Assembly resolution on CORSIA (A39-3) had called for the promotion of the use of emissions units generated under the scheme that both benefited developing States and also encouraged States to develop domestic aviation-related projects. This, she said, meant CORSIA emission credits could be generated from sustainable alternative fuel projects.

He (Wendy Aritenang of the Indonesia Biofuels & Renewable Energy Initiative) was also concerned that CORSIA could actually be in competition with the deployment of SAFs. If the market price of emission units was very low, airlines would likely choose carbon offsetting over using SAFs. A possible solution would be to limit the percentage of emissions that could be offset under CORSIA, he suggested.

Pedro Scorza of Brazilian airline GOL, said his country would need to produce around 678,000 tonnes of SAF by 2030 to avoid emissions of close to 1.5 million tonnes of CO2e if carbon-neutral growth was to be met from Brazilian airlines flying on international routes under the CORSIA scope. However, he said, a more desirable scenario for the country was to be producing 4.6 million tonnes of SAFs by 2030 to offset the growth in emissions from all jet fuel use in Brazil. SAF production in Brazil also had the added benefits of potentially creating 60,000 jobs across the value chain and avoiding the huge cost of importing fossil kerosene that amounted to over $500 million in 2015, having peaked at $1.6 billion in 2013.

To achieve the desired 2030 scenario, Scorza reported, work had begun in the country to establish a set of policies and action plans that included production regulations, quality and sustainability certification, financial incentives, funding packages, R&D, biomass value chain integration, a national jet biofuel Act and partnership between airports, airlines and jet fuel suppliers.

Using regional blending mandates can lead to higher fuel prices and causes competitive distortion, and a system whereby producers can opt in, such as in the US and the Netherlands, was preferable, said Leigh Hudson of the International Airlines Group (IAG) READ MORE