New jet fuel requirements for flights leaving EU airports have passed in the EU Parliament with massive support.
MEPs voted overwhelmingly in favor of new aviation fuel standards on September 14th but skeptics fear the measure will not only make flying more expensive but also be nearly impossible to comply with due to a scarcity of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs).
Difficult to propel with electric engines and hydrogen, aircraft are fueled with kerosene. Under the new rules, kerosene will have to be mixed with a ‘green’ jet fuel in amounts that jump up every five years. The legal obligation will start in 2025 at 2%. By 2035 the required mix will be 20%, and by 2050 70%.
It will apply to all flights departing from an EU airport regardless of their destination.
The legislation includes creating a label that airlines can use voluntarily to display the CO2 output of the flight, described as a per-passenger rate, and the expected CO2 efficiency per kilometre so passengers can see the CO2 emissions of flights along the same route.
Additionally, under the law, the EU will also start monitoring the burning of aromatic and sulfur content—considered non-carbon pollutant emissions—so that the EU executive can prepare legislation to target these effects by 2027.
The law also defines what counts as sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs). Among those allowed are biofuels derived from used cooking oil and synthetic fuels made with green electricity, as well as recycled jet fuels produced from waste gases and waste plastic. Excluded are crop-based biofuels because of concerns that they will increase inflation due to competition with food production. Allowed biofuels also include those made from agricultural and forestry residues, such as algae and trimmed tree branches.
Supporters, including Green and Renew MEPs who voted in favor of the measure, hailed it as an important step in decarbonizing the aviation sector.
Opponents in the aviation and energy industries warn that the extreme scarcity of SAFs and their consequently exorbitant price tag will make flying more expensive while reaching the mandated goals will likely be impossible. In reaction to the law’s passage, Matteo Mirolo, aviation manager with the green NGO Transport & Environment, cautioned that no supply of SAFs existed to support the aviation industry.
“At the current predicted rates of growth of the industry, producing enough green fuels to feed all these flights is unrealistic. The amount of renewable energy required will be immense,” he said. “If green fuels are really to have a future in Europe, growth rates must be managed, otherwise SAFs risk becoming an endless drain of precious green energy.”
As it stands, SAFs make up 1% of aviation fuels and are five times as expensive as straight kerosene. Industry experts also scoff at the EU’s funding measure included in the legislation, which is €2 billion worth of EU subsidies for airlines. There is also fear that the regulation will only increase the circulation of fraudulent Chinese biofuels.
“It seems the EU is more focused on window dressing and letting the United States eat it for breakfast,” Laurent Donceel, acting managing director of lobbying group Airlines for Europe said in comments earlier this year after the EU published its Net Zero Industry Act in mid-March to compete with U.S. subsidies designed to capture the global green industry market. “Europe needs to step up and throw its weight behind a domestic SAF industry to ensure it does not fall behind.”
Rhetorically, the Commission has stood by its high standards as the best way to incentivize the industry but the fine print in the parliamentary law demonstrates the doubts that abound even in Brussels. The law approved by Parliament includes a sub-mandate that is far less stringent: by 2030, e-fuels must make up 1.2% of the fuel mix, progressively reaching a mere 35% in 2050.
Now the law goes to the council where heads of state will hash out a final version.
