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Aviation giant, Boeing recently announced that it will be working to fulfill its commitment towards making all its planes fly on sustainable fuels created from vegetable oil and non-recyclable household waste, among other sources by 2030.
The aviation giant announced its commitment to make all its planes use sustainable fuels by 2030. Boeing explained that switching to sustainable fuels is the ‘safest and most measurable solution to reduce aviation carbon emissions in the coming decades.’
Sustainable aviation fuels are the safest and most measurable solution to reduce aviation carbon emissions in the coming decades. We’re committed to working with regulators, engine companies, and other key stakeholders to ensure our airplanes and eventually our industry can fly entirely on sustainable jet fuels
Stan Deal, Commercial Airplanes President and CEO, Boeing
Sustainable aviation fuels are developed from vegetable oil, animal fats, various agricultural and forestry waste, and non-recyclable household waste, among other sources.
According to the Air Transport Action Group, U.S. Department of Energy and several other scientific studies, sustainable aviation fuels help reduce carbon emissions by up to 80% over the fuel’s life cycle with the potential to reach 100% in the future.
In a press release seen by Green Queen, Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Stan Deal said: “Our industry and customers are committed to addressing climate change, and sustainable aviation fuels are the safest and most measurable solution to reduce aviation carbon emissions in the coming decades. We’re committed to working with regulators, engine companies, and other key stakeholders to ensure our airplanes and eventually our industry can fly entirely on sustainable jet fuels.”
Boeing further noted that in the past, it had successfully conducted test flights that used 100% sustainable fuels. For instance, back in 2018, under the Boeing ecoDemonstrator program, a FedEx 777 Freighter, became the first plane to fly without a conventional fuel blend.
Sustainable aviation fuels are proven, used every day, and have the most immediate and greatest potential to reduce carbon emissions in the near and long term when we work together as an industry
Chris Raymond, Chief Sustainability Officer, Boeing
The present regulations enforce planes to use only up to a 50/50 blend of conventional jet and sustainable fuels. As a result, Boeing as well as other plane manufacturers will have to work with aviation regulatory authorities to convince them that it’s safe to raise that limit.
Chris Raymond, Boeing’s Chief Sustainability Officer, said: “With a long history of innovation in sustainable aviation fuels, certifying our family of airplanes to fly on 100% sustainable fuels significantly advances Boeing’s deep commitment to innovate and operate to make the world better. Sustainable aviation fuels are proven, used every day, and have the most immediate and greatest potential to reduce carbon emissions in the near and long term when we work together as an industry.”
This step will further the aviation industry’s commitment as a whole to decrease its carbon emissions by 2050.
Elsewhere, last year in October, in its bid to become the leader in decarbonising the aviation industry, Airbus revealed three of its new concepts that will help net-zero commercial flights to take off by 2035. The designs will use hydrogen as its power source thus enabling the industry to meet its climate-neutral goals.
Additionally, to offer a comprehensive look into the impact of frequent flyers and highlight the enormous impact the world’s wealthiest individuals are having on fuelling the climate crisis, a study published in the journal Global Environmental Change last year showed that just 1% of the world’s population is responsible for half of the global aviation industry’s carbon emissions in 2018.
Lead image courtesy of Aleksandar Pasaric/Pexels.
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