The UK government plans to mandate airlines to gradually transition to greener fuel sources to assist the heavily polluting aviation sector in decarbonizing.
By 2030, the government aims for ten percent of jet fuel used on UK departing flights to be sourced from “sustainable aviation fuels” (SAFs), which can be derived from various sources like crops, used cooking oil, or household waste. SAFs have the potential to emit around 70 percent less carbon dioxide throughout their life cycle compared to traditional aviation fuel and are largely compatible with existing aircraft engines.
Given that technologies like hydrogen- or electric-powered passenger aircraft are still in experimental phases, SAFs currently represent the most practical solution for the airline industry to achieve its net-zero target by 2050.
