Decarbonising Aviation

Debate between Robert Courts and Gary Streeter

Tuesday 21st September 2021 Westminster Hall

[Robert Courts]

The hon. Lady makes a very good point, and I am grateful to her for it. I have a great deal of sympathy with people who ask for the membership of the Jet Zero Council. We have to have a finite number of people on the council, simply because it is a technical body and has to be able to produce results, but trade unions are involved in the sub-groups, which I will spend a moment talking about, particularly to put right some of the misunderstandings.[Official Report, 29 November 2021, Vol. 704, c. 8MC.]

In June, we had the successful third meeting of the Jet Zero Council. The hon. Member for Putney said that she was disappointed that it had not met. I know what she means, but I ask her to remember that it is a plenary body. Perhaps there has been a misunderstanding; I hope I can put it right. At that stage, the Transport Secretary announced plans to formalise and broaden the zero emission flight delivery group, and to establish new sub-groups on ground infrastructure, regulation and commercialisation. I will come to the sub-groups in a moment.

Emma Gilthorpe, the Jet Zero Council chief executive officer, has established new governance arrangements and is really driving them forward. There are two key workstreams at present: sustainable aviation fuels and zero emissions flight. She has also been holding the momentum in between the council meetings because, as we all know, often the work takes place in between, rather than at, meetings, at which people report. If I can put right the misunderstanding that the hon. Member for Putney perhaps fell into inadvertently, the most recent meeting was the 29th meeting across the council’s delivery groups, sub-groups, steering group and plenary council. I hope that that helps and reassures the House about some of the things that we are doing.

I want to spend a few moments talking about sustainable aviation fuels, because they are so important. This is where I will come to the points made by the hon. Member for Bath. It is possible to drop fuels into existing aircraft types, and the synthetic fuels that she mentioned are a form of sustainable aviation fuel. That is part of the mix that is being considered. As I will explain in a moment, the Government are essentially providing the initial money to develop all of those things. I will give her another good example in a moment. This is the sort of thing that we often read about in the papers—turning waste into jet fuel, for example, which is one good example of what can be done with waste, although I accept that perhaps there will be a need for more than that.

The Prime Minister’s 10-point plan announced a package of exciting measures that are designed to introduce the production and use of sustainable aviation fuel. The £15 million “Green Fuels, Green Skies” competition aims to support innovative SAF production technologies at commercial scale, so that they can be produced in the UK and then reduce emissions in the UK. Eight projects have recently been shortlisted for funding. If hon. Members would care to look at the website—I think that the hon. Member for Bath will be particularly interested—they will see that the first project listed, which was in July, combines carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere with water. It is direct air carbon capture and storage, which I think is what she was asking me about. That is one of the shortlisted projects. Essentially, the answer to her question, “Are synthetic fuels being considered as part of SAF?”, is that they are certainly part of the technological mix, and what we are doing is putting in the money to see them developed. I hope that answer assists her.

The £3 million for a SAF clearing house to build and further develop UK testing and certification expertise is a big part of this process as well. We have also finished consulting on proposals for a sustainable aviation fuels mandate to drive the development and uptake of SAF, which also provides greater support for the development of synthetic fuels, which the hon. Member talked about, as we look to maximise their development.

The consultation sets out a variety of potential SAF uptake scenarios, going up to 10% SAF by 2030 and 75% by 2050, but I am really keen to emphasise the point that the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North made, which is that this is not fantasy stuff—it is happening right now, as we heard from him when he talked about the recent British Airways flight to his constituency.

I will try my best to respond to everyone’s points, Sir Gary; I am conscious that I may run out of time, as I want to leave some time for the hon. Member for Putney to respond to the debate.

[Sir Gary Streeter (in the Chair)]

You are doing a good job.

[Robert Courts]

On zero emission flights, we are working with the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy on the new aircraft technology that we have all heard a great deal about today.

The Government have invested heavily in aerospace research and development—£3.9 billion of match funding, from 2013 to 2026, guided by the Aerospace Technology Institute. The hon. Member for Angus listed some of the great British aircraft from the past—we could be here all afternoon talking about those—and our plans for the future. The right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington said how much he had enjoyed that speech; well, there is plenty more where that came from, if he would like to listen to the hon. Member for Angus and me talking on the subject.

The FlyZero project is one of the key projects run by the ATI. The hon. Member for Richmond Park made some very good points—I agree with many of the points she made—about the excitement generated by the new technology. We have heard about the Airbus project, which is one of the projects on the way. I saw ZeroAvia’s first flight of a hydrogen aircraft last year; ZeroAvia is now working on a 19-seater. Nuncats has a solar-powered battery aircraft, which I saw at Old Buckenham recently. It is very exciting, particularly for connecting people in the developing world. I also recently saw Ampaire’s electric flight from Exeter. That is particularly exciting when we consider the novel uses of this technology.

The hon. Member for Angus asked about battery technology. He is right, of course, that batteries are very heavy, which is a big challenge. Does electric play a part? Yes, it probably does. Does hydrogen play a part? Yes, it probably does. But it is probably not for a Government Minister to say so at this point. What we should be doing, and I suggest that we are doing it, is to put the money—the R&D funding—in place, so that we find out what the answer is. As I have said, electric probably plays a part. The hon. Member rightly talked about the work that Highland and Islands Airports Ltd has been doing, and the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North talked about the work that Loganair has been doing. Both companies are world-leading.

The hon. Members for Paisley and Renfrewshire North and for Strangford both told us about the reality of this interconnected world and the importance of aviation. Batteries and electric may well play a part in the sorts of journeys that they make.

We are continuing to look at these detailed plans. As part of the Prime Minister’s 10-point plan, the zero emission flight infrastructure was launched recently, and there are many innovative ideas coming forward to progress R&D. We will announce some more successful projects shortly.

I think that the hon. Member for Bristol East asked me about the emissions trading scheme at one point. Perhaps she did not and I misunderstood her, but I will tell her about it anyway. The scheme will cover all domestic flights, flights from the UK to the European economic area and flights between the UK and Gibraltar, and it goes further than the EU scheme that it replaces. We have reduced its cap by 5% and we will consult on putting it on a clear net zero trajectory.

I am very keen to stress that this is not a domestic-only issue; it is a global problem that requires a global solution. We are continuing to work with the International Civil Aviation Organisation in particular to make sure that we drive the ambition and do the technical work on the feasibility of this long-term goal.

Through ICAO, we are also leading members of the carbon offsetting and reduction scheme for international aviation, which is the first worldwide scheme to address CO₂ emissions in any sector. We are strong supporters of that, although I accept what hon. Members have said, that we cannot rely on that alone. None the less, in the short term it is probably part of the picture. COP26 gives us a great deal of ambition to show how we are leading on this. I look forward to explaining more about that in due course.

I will say a word or two about airport expansion. We take our commitments on the environment very seriously. I will quote from page 38, paragraph 3.41, of the jet zero consultation document, with regard to the impact of covid:

“even if the sector returns to a pre-COVID-19 demand trajectory, as we have assumed in our analysis, we currently believe the sector can achieve Jet Zero without the Government needing to intervene directly to limit aviation growth. The industry’s need to rebuild from a lower base is likely to mean that plans for airport expansion will be slower to come forward.”

We built that into the consultation process. I hope that hon. Members got that reference; I can provide it, if need be.

The hon. Members for Putney and for Richmond Park and the right hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington made a number of points about Heathrow expansion. They made their arguments with great courtesy, passion and power. The Government have been clear that Heathrow expansion is a private sector project, which has to meet strict criteria on air quality, noise and climate change, as well as being privately financed, affordable and delivered in the best interests of consumers. I hope they will understand that I cannot comment any further, in case there were to be a planning matter that would prejudice any further consideration by Ministers. None the less, I refer to that section in the jet zero consultation.

I am conscious that I am now out of time. I hope I have dealt with all queries from right hon. and hon. Members. If I have not, I will do my best to do so in writing later. I hope that what I have outlined today has made it clear that jet zero is a priority for the Government and that we are delivering on it with great enthusiasm and pace.