UK Government prepares Jet Zero Council for take-off

Avinor’s electric plane [image credit: inhabitat.com]

More ‘net zero’ tomfoolery. Batteries are heavy and unlike fuel don’t allow the plane to lose weight during flight, meaning harder landings or lower carrying capacity. Meanwhile biofuel still emits carbon dioxide, which is supposed to be what the climate obsession is about.
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Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has today announced a dual boost to the UK’s nascent low carbon aviation sector, confirming the formation of a new ‘Jet Zero Council’ and the award of fresh funding for green fuel specialist Velocsys, reports BusinessGreen.

Shapps used his appearance at the daily coronavirus press conference to announce the moves, which he said would support the government’s vision of a “greener transport future”.

Building on the recent confirmation the government is to invest £2bn in new active transport infrastructure, Shapps said the challenge was “to make transport – currently our biggest emitter of greenhouse gases – part of the solution, not the problem”.

He added that decarbonisation was particularly difficult for an aviation industry that has faced an “impossible few months” as a result of the coronavirus crisis.

“Yet, despite the obvious challenges, there’s a real determination within the industry to have a greener restart,” Shapps said. “So we’re bringing together leaders from aviation, environmental groups and government to form the Jet Zero Council. This group will be charged with making net zero emissions possible for future flights.”

He added that the government’s goal was to demonstrate it was possible to undertake flight across the Atlantic, without harming the environment, “within a generation”.
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A raft of airlines and airports have announced net zero emissions targets in recent years, while at the same time aerospace companies have ramped up investment in new clean technologies.

However, there is considerable debate over how feasible it is to decarbonise aviation, especially for long haul flights.

Successful test flights have demonstrated that small planes can operate with batteries and electric motors, but it remains a huge technical leap to deliver low emission jet aircraft.

Engineers are optimistic hydrogen fuel cells and electric motors could one day combine with conventional jet engines to deliver low emission hybrid planes, while biofuels also offer a route to curbing aviation emissions.

But experts have warned that biofuels are currently considerably more expensive than conventional jet fuel and are not yet available at scale.

As such, airlines are stepping up investment in nature-based carbon offset programmes – an approach that remains controversial with many environmental campaigners.

Full report here.