To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the 25 Year Environment Plan, whether his Department plans to provide additional support for the development of sustainable aviation fuels.
Answered on
24 June 2019
The 25 Year Environment Plan noted that the Government would explore different infrastructure options for managing residual waste, including the production of biofuels for transport and emerging innovative technologies.
Under the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), biofuels reported as being made from waste have risen from 12 per cent of total biofuel supply in the first year of the obligation 2008/09 to 66 per cent in 2017/18.
Building on that success the Government introduced changes to the RTFO last year which extended eligibility for rewards under the RTFO to aviation fuels. We are also making available up to £20 million of matched capital funding to projects that will produce low carbon waste-based fuels to be used in aeroplanes and lorries through the Future Fuels for Flight and Freight Competition.
The Department is also discussing with industry whether fuels produced from non-biogenic wastes, including those that are difficult to recycle, should be supported under the RTFO.
The Government’s new aviation strategy, Aviation 2050 – The future of UK aviation, will be published later this year. Through consultation on that Strategy the Government is considering further policies it can put in place to assist the long-term uptake of sustainable alternative fuels in this sector.