Green fuel 'shortage' pits planes against cars

Airlines should have priority for 'precious' sustainable fuels, says German logistics firm DHL

German freight carrier DHL uses a small amount of sustainable fuel in its 300 aircraft. Bloomberg

Airlines have a "significant shortage" of clean fuel, a major freight carrier warned on Tuesday as it called for supplies to be funnelled into planes rather than cars.

German logistics company DHL said the aviation sector should take priority because electric cars mean "there is an alternative" for going greener on the road. A more radical remodelling of planes to run on hydrogen will take another decade at least, said board member Melanie Kreis.

A summit in Hamburg heard plane maker Airbus is banking on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), typically made from animal fats or used cooking oils, to replace fossil fuels in its jet engines and cut more than 50 per cent of its carbon footprint.

However, the industry will "need a ramp up of SAF production this decade if we want to make any progress", Ms Kreis said. While DHL bought 70,000 tonnes of sustainable fuel for its 300 cargo planes last year, it was still a small part of the picture, she added.

"I could now say we were the airline with the highest SAF blend. Amazingly, it was 3 per cent," she said. "With the 3 per cent that we had last year, we actually bought 14 per cent of global SAF production. What these numbers show clearly is that there a significant shortage.

"Road is also a big topic but when I look at our last mile delivery fleet, there is an alternative. We can go electric. For the next 10 years, the only chance apart from getting newer aircraft in is SAF. We have to prioritise that these precious limited production facilities are used for aviation."

Synthetic fuels are favoured by car manufacturers such as Ferrari and Porsche, and the EU last year agreed – under pressure from pro-business interests in Germany – to keep the door open to them in its 2035 climate change rules.

Although some car makers such as Volkswagen have played down e-fuels and put their focus squarely on electric vehicles, there is potential for conflicting needs in a biofuels sector that also makes demands on agricultural land.

The issues with mass production of biofuels mean Germany is focusing on an alternative method of making clean aviation fuel, known as power-to liquid fuel, said Anna Christmann, the government's aerospace policy co-ordinator.

An EU quota for the use of SAF – requiring a 20 per cent blend by 2035 and 70 per cent by 2050 – means it is "clear we will go this way but we still have to push for the production", she told the Hamburg Sustainability Conference.

Nicole Dreyer-Langlet, an Airbus vice president responsible for research and technology, said hydrogen-powered aircraft could one day "very significantly reduce" CO2 emissions but the company's first commercial model is not expected to reach the market until 2035.

The Airbus executive also welcomed remarks by German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday that rich countries cannot ask poorer ones to use fewer cars in the name of sustainability. "You cannot have sustainability without prosperity," she said.