Virgin promotes biofuels future
Virgin Australia has affirmed their commitment to biofuel alternatives but say it is still embryonic and they are not wedded to one solution.
The airline insisted that there is no doubt that biofuels are the future, with the high cost and quantity required for current fossil fuels demanding an alternative.
Virgin has recently invested in a Brisbane bioport, a year-long study converting Queensland food stocks into biofuel.
“While embryonic, these are real steps forward,” Virgin Australia principal economist Robert Boyd told the Boeing Aero Environmental Summit, held in Sydney yesterday.
The five member panel recognized the challenges in price parity, with biofuels costing almost triple the cost of current fossil fuels.
“This is going to be an incremental process. We might start by using one or half a percent… Then it’s up to the airlines and other players to how we address the price gap,” Boyd said.
Public and political support was seen as key to enabling sustainable fuel growth.
“The idea that the government should be giving subsidies to very large companies is a challenge,” Good Environmental Choice Australia CEO Rupert Posner said.
Qantas pointed out that fuel security is one of the strategic benefits that biofuel offers.
“We’re looking at a whole range of issues on why this is good for us which balance out the price differentials,” Qantas head of environmental resilience John Valastro said.
Virgin Australia predicts that in 2035 it will meet the major share of its biofuel targets to reduce emissions to 2005 levels by 2050.
“A big chunk of that is delivered through sustainable aviation fuels,” Boyd said.
The panel conceded that the limiting factor in sustainable fuel is food stocks with Qantas assessing land use and food security impacts.
“Fundamentally it has to be proven in terms of life cycle impact from a carbon emissions point of view,” Valastro said.
“Fuel production in future is not going to be mining, it will be farming,” University of Queensland plant scientist Paul Scott added.
Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au
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