This week I sit down with Kata Cserep from PA Consulting who gives a blunt, no nonsense take on why SAF – sustainable aviation fuel – is essential right now and why the industry cannot keep waiting.
I start with the old line about not flying and she shoots it down instantly. She says “It would be inappropriate. It would certainly be overreach” and reminds me that “the whole purpose of aviation is to connect the world.”
Kata lays out the SAF timeline and it’s not what most people think.
She tells me “it used to be called biofuels” and points out the first commercial flight ran in 2008 which makes the current tiny volumes even more stark as she says “we’re talking about doubling a minuscule number to become a slightly less minuscule number.”
Cost is the drag factor holding everything back.
Kata is clear that “if SAF cost the same today as jet A1 we wouldn’t have a problem” because trust is not the issue and she stresses “it has to meet the same standards” so the barrier is economic not technical.
We tackle the argument that aviation is only 2.5% of global emissions but Kata argues it’s only going to grow.
She says “it is 2.5% today… that 2% is easily going to become 20% if nothing is done” and warns that “we expect that to double by 2050” as global demand rises.
I push her on hydrogen and electric planes and whether we should leap straight to them instead. Kata tells me “we cannot afford to wait another 25 years” for those technologies to cover long haul so SAF is the only workable option for the aircraft flying today.
She says we cannot dump responsibility on holidaymakers and airlines cannot swallow huge extra costs in a cut throat market. Her line is crystal clear. “What is left is government” because this is a market failure that needs intervention to scale.
Her sign off is “there is no plan B for the next fifteen years” so the sector must accept the turbulence and move fast because waiting for perfect solutions means nothing happens.
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Net Hero Podcast – Come fly with me…. appeared first on Energy Live News.