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| Richard Branson said the airline industry should aim for 50% sustainable fuels by 2020. Photograph: Mark Lennihan/AP |
The world's
7,000 airlines could switch to low-carbon jet fuels much faster than other
transport because aeroplanes have very few "filling stations", says
Richard Branson.
"Unlike
cars where there are millions of filling stations, there are only about 1,700
aviation stations in the world. So if you can get the right fuel, like
mass-produced algae, then getting it to 1,700 outlets is not so
difficult," Branson said in an interview with the Guardian from the
British Virgin islands.
Branson,
who announced last month he hoped Virgin would soon be able to use waste gases
from industrial steel and aluminium plants as a fuel, said the industry should
aim for 50% sustainable fuels by 2020.
"I
would be very disapointed if not. Once the breakthrough takles place, getting
to 50-100% is not unrealistic. Aviation fuel is 25-40% of the running costs of
airlines so the industry is open to new fuels."
Branson,
whose Virgin group owns 51% of Virgin Atlantic Airways, was speaking in advance
of the launch in Durban of RenewableJetFuels.org, an open access website that
assesses and updates the progress of companies planning to produce
commercial-scale renewable fuel for aviation.
It suggests
that of the 40 companies claiming to have the potential to deliver large-scale
amounts – about one third of them are "credible" from an economic,
scalable and sustainability perspective in their current state.
In the next
five years, according to the website published by business NGO Carbon War Room
and academic publisher Elsevier, some renewable jet fuel companies "could
be producing enough renewable fuel to replace 10-20% of the fuel of a typical
mid-sized airline".
The data,
said Branson, should allow airlines to accelerate linkups with fuel companies.
"Producers
can continually update and re-submit data. This is then reviewed by experts,
enabling RenewableJetFuels.org to be the independent, gold standard for
investors and airlines in the market," said Suzanne Hunt, head of
operations at Carbon War Room.
"Trying
to address climate change makes business sense", said Branson, whose
Virgin airline spends around $3bn a year on jet fuel.
"The
jet fuel industry can charge what they like at present. New fuels will compete.
You could finds the price of aviation fuel comes down."
Three years
ago Virgin flew a plane to Holland on coconut fuel and no one took it
seriously, said Branson. "The industry thought it was PR. BA was pretty
dismissive, saying planes will never fly on bio-fuels. But it actually
kickstarted thinking. Since then, even BA has started investing in new
biofuels.
"We're
heading in the right direction. The industry could go from one of the dirtiest
to one of the cleanest in 10 years. We are investing in different companies and
really beginning to see traction".
The five
leading alternative jet fuel companies identified by Carbon War Room are
Lanzatech, SG biofuels, AltAir, Solazyme and Sapphire.
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