(Credit: Pixabay)The United Kingdom has released a sustainable aviation strategy called Jet Zero, which aims for domestic air travel to achieve net-zero emissions and for all airports in England to be zero emissions by 2040, just as a court ruled that the country has improperly handled its overall net-zero strategy.
The aviation plan calls for improving fuel efficiency annually, creating a sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) mandate, supporting the development of zero-emission aircraft, and developing carbon markets and emissions removal technologies. The UK government says the strategy builds on its net-zero and transportation decarbonization plans.
The aviation strategy, though, comes on the heels of a court-ordered review of the UK’s overall net-zero policy, which calls for the government to specifically outline how it is going to reach emissions targets. The UK unveiled the overall net-zero strategy in October 2021.
The court's ruling says the strategy did not meet the standards of the Climate Change Act, which was set in 2008, by not providing specifics on how the country would meet its carbon goals. Environmental groups Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth, and Good Law Project were among those that challenged the government’s strategy.
The original net-zero plan called for an increase in renewable energy production, building electric vehicle charging infrastructure and ending fossil fuel-based car sales, and investments in new technologies such as green hydrogen and SAF. There were no details on how the strategy would deliver results or cut emissions in each area, the Guardian reported.
The ruling requires a report by April 2023 outlining how the strategy will achieve emissions reductions.
As for the Jet Zero strategy, the UK mandated at least a 10% blend of SAF into conventional aviation fuels by the end of the decade, and the SAF industry will be supported by a $193 million advanced fuels fund. There is also a commitment for at least five commercial-scale SAF plants to be under construction in the country by 2025.
The plan seeks a 2% increase in fuel efficiency each year, and $4.3 million will go to airports to modernize their airspace.
The UK will also study the non-carbon impacts of air travel, including nitrogen oxides. The strategy intends for the industry to monitor worldwide advances in this area and track emissions.
Additionally, the country wants to provide information to consumers so they can make sustainable aviation choices. The goal is to have some of that information available later this year.
The aviation industry accounts for more than 2% of the world’s total emissions, and 12% of the transportation industry’s emissions, according to the Air Transport Action Group. That has airlines ramping up production of SAF and coming up with strategies such as Boeing making a model to reach net zero, or a JetBlue program tracking travel emissions.
