European researchers’ finding last month that only one percent of the world’s population accounts for over half of the total emissions from passenger air travel is piling pressure on the air transport industry to respond with advances in technology and alternative combustion feedstocks, including sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
In a study of global travel through 2018 entitled "The global scale, distribution and growth of aviation: Implications for climate change," academics Stefan Gössling and Andreas Lund found that only 11 percent of the world’s people took a flight in 2018, with only 4 percent flying internationally. Americans flew 50 times further per capita than Africans in 2018.
Since the Covid-19-induced oil price crash, synthetic sustainable fuels have become three to five times more expensive than traditional jet-A fossil fuel. With more than 80 percent of fights grounded this year, airlines have been forced to make cutbacks to reduce costs, intensifying debate over the near-term viability of SAF.
Alejandro Rios-Galvan, director of the Sustainable Bioenergy Research Consortium at Khalifa University of Science and Technology in the UAE, believes the pivotal role the country plays in global aviation, through airlines like Emirates and Etihad Airways, saddles researchers with new responsibilities. “The UAE is in a prime position to be a world leader in the abatement of aviation emissions,” he said.
Lead speaker on a panel on SAF's economic viability, a key session in the Aviation Sustainability virtual event organized in Dubai on November 25, Rios-Galvan set out the alternatives now under study. These include halophytes (a plant feedstock capable of desert cultivation using seawater), municipal solid waste, algae, and industrial waste gases, which could be used to make SAF.
Barriers to adoption caused by scale and infrastructure deficits mean that widespread SAF availability is some way off. Existing airport networks, such as pipelines, could be harnessed, but upstream production in the quantities and at the cost required remains challenging.
“The reality is that fossil fuels are cheap because we're not paying what they cost [or] for the externalities," he said. "We're not paying for contaminating the world. Until we internalize that...and put a price on carbon that allows us to really pay [the cost] for us to use fossil fuels, the playing field will never be level. We know that electrification—for short-haul [flights with] very few passengers—will definitely happen in the next few decades. But in order to transport hundreds of passengers thousands of kilometers, the reality is that the technology we use today will continue to be prevalent and we will need liquid carbon-based fuels. Therefore, we need [alternatives].”
Data presented by the Beirut-based Arab Air Carriers Organization showed that a 40 percent reduction in CO2, using jet fuel blended in equal measure with SAF, could easily double or even triple fuel bills today.
Introduced by the International Civil Aviation Organization in 2016, the Carbon Offset and Reduction System for International Aviation (Corsia) is a leading global emissions reduction framework, with carbon offsets a key goal. UAE airlines claim to be Corsia-compliant.
In October, Abu Dhabi’s Etihad launched what it said was the first-ever aviation sukuk, or Islamic bonds, tied to investments in next-generation aircraft and commitments to CO2 emissions reduction.
“We don't want people to pay us so we can offset our emissions. We want people to pay for the technology to [allow] a sustained offset strategy,” said Mariam Al-Qubaisi, Etihad's head of sustainability, government, international, and communications. “We want more investments in technologies, research and development, and commercialization of technologies that can help us offset.”