Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the £180 million funding for the development of alternative aviation fuel plants announced in the Net Zero Strategy, what assessment his Department made of the potential merits of requiring the aviation industry to (a) fund, (b) match-fund and (c) partly fund the development of alternative fuels; and what meetings officials in his Department have had with recipients of that funding over the last 12 months.

The £180m funding announced in the Net Zero Strategy, to help accelerate the commercialisation of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in the UK, includes £168m of funding for a multi-year competition for funding to produce advanced fuels suitable for aviation and heavy goods vehicles. A further £12m is allocated for the continuation of our SAF clearing house project to accelerate new SAF to the market. SAF is a vital tool in decarbonising aviation and helping the UK reach our net zero goals by 2050.

The department is now developing the eligibility criteria of the new SAF competition, building upon the progress made by, and lessons learnt from, the previous advanced fuels competitions, namely the Advanced Biofuel Demonstration Competition (ABDC), the Future Fuels for Flight and Freight Competition (F4C) and the recent Green Fuels, Green Skies (GFGS) competition. As with the previous successful competitions, the design process will utilise the knowledge and experience of the wider sector, working with existing and prospective SAF producers. It is likely that minimum greenhouse gas savings will be a requirement of receiving funding. Funding will be allocated competitively in line with previous competitions.

No assessment has yet been made as to the balance of funding between industry and Government for the new competition.

DfT officials engage regularly with all the projects eligible for government funding, both through bilateral meetings and as part of regular industry engagement activities. Since its launch in November 2020, over 25 meetings of the Jet Zero Council SAF Delivery Group and its subgroups have been convened.