A recent Virgin Atlantic flight might not be as big of an environmental win as it initially seems.
This week , Virgin Atlanticcompleted the first transatlantic flight in which an airplane used " 100 % sustainable aviation fuel " to power the journeying , fit in toReuters . That means that the escape did n’t use any traditional fuel , as many flights that practice some sustainable airmanship fuel proceed to do . The flight departed from London and land in New York City , and was celebrated by the air hose as a major step toward reaching climate goals for the airline industry .
On the aerofoil , the idea that a plane could use all sustainable fuel sound like great intelligence . As we cognise , the air hose industry is terrible for the environment . A 2020 written report fromNOAAshowed that aviation is responsible for 3.5 % of all machine driver of clime change unite to human activity . In fact , data point from Climate Watchin that same year determined that the deportation sphere is behind only one other sector — electrical energy and heat — in terms of contribute to globular glasshouse flatulency emissions . We need a less environmentally harmful airline industry , as presently as possible .
But Virgin Atlantic ’s SAF might not be as bad of a part of that require change as we ’d care to think . The Royal Society , a chemical group ofworld famous and sure scientist , say in a report that these fuel alternatives will not be enough to even begin to address aviation ’s contribution to clime change . One of the first business organization is that many fuel alternatives are n’t sustainable and are actually using " tantamount resources that would be command for that option to replace fossil jet fuel . "
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Virgin founder Richard Branson acknowledge that this is a small footfall , to his credit . " It ’s rifle to take a while before we can get enough fuel where everybody ’s going to be able-bodied to vanish . But you ’ve got to start somewhere , " Branson say Reuters before room the planing machine before its transatlantic flight .
The Guardianreported that Cait Hewitt , the policy director for the Aviation Environment Federation , had a much more concise response to the use of SAF on the Virgin Atlantic flight . " The idea that this flight somehow gets us closer to guilt - free flying is a jocularity , " Hewitt reportedly said .
Hewitt , much like scientists with the Royal Society , both pointed to one of the adult challenge of sustainable fuel : It ca n’t be produced at scale right now . There is no clear path for how to reduce the airline industry ’s overall dependence on fossil fuels , even if a few flights here and there partially bank on sustainable fuel . In the US alone , there are an average of 45,000 flights per day , according to theFederal Aviation Administration .
Yet another environmental group also blasted the optics of the " 100 % sustainable air fuel " flight of steps . remain found , a science and people - powered chemical group advocating for the reduction in flying and its harmful impact on the environment , called the whole situation " greenwashing . " Greenwashing typically refers to when a company spend more money endeavor on marketing themselves as environmentally - friendly , rather than on actually reduce their environmental shock . Think , BP , the oil color company , having asustainability directorand a sustainability page on its website .
" The aviation sphere ’s current endeavor to promote ' sustainable ' trajectory is a greenwashing distraction from the urgent pauperism to subdue flight , " Magdalena Heuwieser from Stay ground , said in a statement . " While public focus is on this one seemingly dark-green flight , there are 100,000 day-by-day flights using fossil fuels . Fuel substitutes are only a tiny drop in a fossil fuel ocean . They are nowhere close to being scalable in the necessary time anatomy to void climate collapse . What is urgently take is to boil down the combustion of fossil jet fuel , which imply reducing flight wherever potential . "
If you ’re curious , you may learn more about the unconscious process of making and using sustainable fuel and alternative fuels atEnergy.gov . And if this sustainable fuel conversation has you think about how you’re able to reduce your traveling environmental wallop , considertaking a bus or trainon your next escapade .
I guess the secure way to understand this first flight , which carried a handful Virgin Atlantic executives and British government officials , is the return flight of steps . After make a symbolic first journey across the ocean with SAF , the return flight home for everyone from New York to London just used regular sure-enough jet-propelled plane fuel .
