Government and industry leaders agree that achieving sustainability goals of net zero by 2050 is vital for aviation and that it would not be able to get there without widespread adoption of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Speaking during a forum—Accelerating Sustainable Aviation and Targeting True Zero—on the opening day of the 2022 Farnborough Airshow, Rolls-Royce CEO Warren East called a focus on sustainable aviation “an absolute necessity and a commercial imperative” but added it also represents an opportunity. “That is the approach we are taking,” he said.
Jim Hileman, chief scientific advisor for environment and energy for the FAA, noted that while 2050 “seems like a long time from now, it's not.” Building new infrastructure for decarbonization is a long undertaking. A more likely route will be to leverage today’s infrastructure and refining capabilities with SAF. "We have tremendous capability of producing biomass. We also have tremendous capability of using biofuels,” he said. “If we want to get to net zero, that is the answer.”
More In Sustainability and Environment
