By CHINAMI TAJIKA/ Staff Writer
October 29, 2024 at 08:00 JST
Airline companies have begun to use sustainable aviation fuels to reduce their carbon footprint in the sky, but the supply remains extremely limited. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Sustainable aviation fuel will be key to keeping planes in the skies from fiscal 2030 under a government push to decarbonize the aviation industry.
The industry ministry decided on the policy after a meeting of an advisory panel on Sept. 30, according to a source.
It plans to revise the relevant government and ministry ordinances concerning the policy during the next fiscal year starting April 1.
The aviation industry is struggling to shift from fossil fuels that are a key culprit in releasing heat-trapping gases.
While traditional jet fuel is refined from crude oil, the bulk of sustainable versions is created from waste cooking oil.
The latter’s total carbon dioxide emission in the process from production to actual use is said to account for only 20 percent of the former.
The government hoped to advance the supply of sustainable sources for aircraft as a last resort to combat climate change.
It plans to ask five major energy distributors, including Eneos Corp. and Idemitsu Kosan Co., to supply sustainable aviation fuels in amounts matching at least 5 percent of the total carbon dioxide released by jet fuel in fiscal 2019.
More airline companies have begun using sustainable sources to operate their passenger jets.
But the supply remains paltry.
About 300,000 kiloliters of sustainable fuels were used by the global aviation industry in 2022, representing just 0.1 percent of the total.
It is estimated that 450 million kiloliters of sustainable fuels would be needed to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050.
The price of waste cooking oil is surging across the world, costing more than three times that of traditional jet fuels.
As part of its initiative to promote the use of sustainable aviation fuel sources, the government will have to decide who will shoulder the soaring costs and where the manufacturing base will be set up.
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