Singapore on Monday stated travellers would want to bear the price of the transition towards inexperienced jet gasoline, asserting plans for a levy that might elevate ticket costs on departing flights because the aviation trade searches for a viable funding mannequin.
Introduced by Singapore’s transport minister at an trade summit on the eve of the Singapore Airshow, the city-state stated it aimed for all departing flights to make use of 1% sustainable aviation gasoline (SAF) from 2026 and deliberate to boost that to 3-5% by 2030, topic to world developments and the broader availability and adoption of SAF.
“It will hurt our air hub and our economy, and raise the cost of travel for passengers if we are overly ambitious with our sustainability goals,” Transport Minister Chee Hong Tat stated of the necessity to give modest targets initially.
Aviation produces about 2% of the world’s emissions however is taken into account one of many hardest sectors to decarbonise.
European regulators need to date been probably the most energetic in making an attempt to spice up the usage of SAF, introducing guidelines that power airways to satisfy minimal necessities for its use equivalent to 2% in France by 2025 and 5% by 2030.
Under the European mannequin, the provider pays for the SAF and decides whether or not to go the price onto passengers within the ticket value.
Singapore’s levy will range based mostly on elements such because the flight’s distance and journey class.
For instance, in 2026 the worth of an financial system class ticket on a direct flight from Singapore to Bangkok, Tokyo and London by an estimated quantity of round S$3 ($2.23), S$6 and S$16 respectively to pay for the SAF, stated the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, which developed the plan in session with trade and different stakeholders.
SAF, which may be made both by means of artificial processes or from organic supplies like used cooking oil or wooden chips, at the moment accounts for 0.2% of the jet gasoline market and prices as much as 5 occasions greater than standard jet gasoline.
“A big challenge that we are facing that is contributing to the high costs is actually securing bio-derived feed,” stated Ong Shwu Hoon, Asia Pacific fuels vice chairman at ExxonMobil Asia Pacific.
High Costs
Singapore’s solely present SAF producer Neste has the capability to supply as much as 1 million metric tons of the gasoline yearly at its refinery within the nation that began working final 12 months, an organization consultant stated, greater than 10 occasions the quantity required for the goal of 1% by 2026. Neste produced 251,000 tons of SAF globally in 2023, in accordance with its most up-to-date monetary report.
The aviation trade says SAF use must rise to 65% by 2050 as a part of a plan to succeed in “net zero” emissions by then, although that may require an estimated $1.45 trillion to $3.2 trillion of capital spending.
“There will be a cost associated with transitioning to net zero. And ultimately, that cost will have to be reflected in the ticket prices, which will have a dampening effect on growth,” IATA Director General Willie Walsh stated on the Singapore summit.
IATA, which represents about 320 airways, estimates the worldwide airline trade will develop at about 3.3% a 12 months over the following 20 years, considerably decrease than between 2010 and 2019, due to environmental challenges and provide chain points, Walsh stated.
He stated there have been dangers that taxation to pay for aviation sustainability measures wouldn’t scale back the variety of flights but it surely may value some individuals out of flying and result in empty seats, which isn’t good for the surroundings.
“It’s got to be a conversation: economics and viability, and environment sustainability,” Walsh stated.
Luis Felipe de Oliveira, director common of Airports Council International, stated governments should put money into new SAF refineries to assist deliver down the price.
“The solution is not capacity restrictions, the solution is not taxation, the solution is finding ways that you can work together to increase production which then will be used by the airlines in the system,” he stated.
Sustainability might be a key theme of occasions at Asia’s largest aviation gathering, the Singapore Airshow, which opens February 20.
During the present, Airbus will fly its A350-1000 widebody plane with a 35% mix of SAF equipped by Shell Aviation from used cooking oil and tallow.
Singapore Airlines Chief Sustainability Officer Lee Wen Fen stated, whereas the trade awaits ramped up SAF manufacturing, changing older planes with environment friendly fashionable ones is the simplest possibility.
Source: www.thehindu.com
