EUROCONTROL Stakeholder Forum on sustainability

On 27 October EUROCONTROL hosted the Stakeholder Forum on sustainability as part of their 'build back better' series. Four panellists addressed the question of how aviation can be sustainable in a post-COVID era.

Jonathan Wood from NESTE outlined the challenges and opportunities of Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF). SAF is one of the most promising solutions to the decarbonisation challenge of aviation as it is expected that it will lead to a 80-90 per cent CO2 reduction on a lifecycle basis. SAF can be delivered by pipelines to any airport as it is approved as jet fuel (there may be requirements to track the inputs to know how much SAF is delivered to country or airport). NESTE is currently supplying 100,000 tons of SAF. There are limitations on feedstock, and therefore it is necessary to develop further technologies, as a roadmap of different technologies that will bring SAF to the market. The lead time on building SAF capacity is significant as well as investment costs: it takes five years between design, building and commencing production. We can already see a significant amount of capacity coming onstream from new and older plants. 5 per cent of total aviation SAF demand could be a reasonable target for 2025 and 10 per cent by 2030 for Europe. Some countries are talking about higher share of SAF. It has a higher cost than conventional jet fuel, which will trend down as production comes and larger scale plants are built, but SAF will also cost more in the future. Hence policies are necessary to help either via incentives or blending mandates. 

Sarolta Katona, from Budapest Airport, talked about sustainable development at airports as a long-term commitment. There is the need to develop a joint and collaborative approach with all relevant stakeholders to tackle the environmental challenge. There are other challenges that need to be tackled like the COVID-19 crisis, however, sustainability has remained the main pillar of the airport. In addition, CO2 emissions are a good KPI to look at as it is comparable with other airports as well. On noise, it is critical for airports due to the local community and they need to be very transparent on it.

Tim Johnson, from Aviation Environment Federation, stated the need for a green and resilient recovery. There are some encouraging signs and opportunities which have escalated during the crisis, such as new technological developments and retirement of old fleet. There is a lack of cash that will hinder progress on technologies and solutions that will deliver greater benefits but require more investments. There is also a lack of certainty for investors on where we want to be in 2050. On the industry’s side it is clear, however, the regulators still need to catch up. Regarding CORSIA, the way it currently is designed has a weak carbon price and target and risk delaying investments in real in-sector reductions. But one of the benefits it is that it has been agreed globally and many countries will be able to launch a price signal. As for SAF, Tim Johnson stated that the best way forward is a mandate. It will create incentives but there is a danger that we cannot supply genuinely sustainable SAF, and we would be promoting something wrong.

Freek De Witte from DHL Aviation mentioned that 65 per cent of the CO2 emitted from their operations comes from air transport. Sustainability is their main focus for 2050 and they will invest in fleet renewal, ATM optimisation and fuel optimisation programme. Focus will also be on SAF (both biofuels and syn-fuels) as they have the right potential to tackle CO2 emissions in the short term. For the long term they’ll have to look at different propulsion technologies. Airlines will invest in these new technologies as costumers are asking the sector to gain licence to operate by being in line with climate targets and the Paris Agreement. There is a huge modernisation process ongoing in ATM via the renewed effort on SES2+.