SAF is For The Birds

 Rachel Reeves appears to be trying to persuade Ed Miliband and others that Heathrow expansion should be allowed on the basis that there will be a dramatic increase in the use of Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).

Critics point out that widespread use of SAF is itself ‘unsustainable’. Half of the agricultural land in the UK would have to be given over to growing biofuels in order to create enough SAF to support current levels of flying. 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jan/23/rachel-reevess-bid-to-expand-heathrow-could-add-40-to-airline-ticket?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

 

 

Going back a few years the ‘Director of Downstream‘(!) at Shell Oil set the ambition of producing 2 million tons of SAF by 2025. 

 

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2021/09/aviation-flight-path-to-net-zero-future/

 

A recent report by the IATA (the airline industry trade body) advised that the total amount of SAF produced in 2024 was less than 1 million tons, and points out that this was only 0.3% of global jet fuel production.

 

https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/2024-releases/2024-12-10-03/

 

 

There ain’t no alternative. Flying can’t be uninvented and will probably need to continue - eg to deliver vital supplies in an emergency or perhaps to allow visits to dying relatives or newborn babies, but it will have to be severely curtailed. This can only be done by the world’s political leaders, perhaps increasingly terrified by the consequences of climate breakdown and under pressure to act by a global movement which Greens everywhere should play an important part in building.

 

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