Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask His Majesty's Government what financial assistance they have given to (1) businesses, or (2) academic institutions, in connection with low carbon aviation in the form of (a) grants, (b) loans, (c) guarantees or indemnities, (d) acquisitions of shares or securities, (e) undertakings or assets, or (f) incurring expenditure, for the benefit of the body assisted in the creation of (i) hydrogen fuel cells, (ii) other electric battery technologies, (iii) hydrogen combustion, (iv) synthetic liquid fuels, and (v) biofuels.

The Government co-invests in mid-stage R&D, with industry, to develop new ultra-efficient and zero-carbon aircraft technologies through the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Programme. Since 2013, the ATI Programme has committed R&D grants to 29 industry-led collaborative projects on new forms of propulsion or fuels totalling £194m. Industry will co-invest £178m alongside these grants. The R&D projects cover a range of technologies but are primarily focused on aircraft propulsion systems involving hydrogen fuel cells, batteries, and electric motors and machines. Each project involves a range of collaborators including industry partners, universities and research organisations. Grants through the ATI Programme have also been provided to develop aircraft gas turbine engines, which have included work packages to test synthetic fuels or biofuels. We have not been able to isolate the cost of this element of research within large projects, so have not included it in the figures set out above.

In order to explore the potential for zero-carbon emission flight, the Government also provided a £15m grant to the ATI-led FlyZero project. This in-depth research study, which was completed in March 2022, found green liquid hydrogen offers the greatest potential to power future zero-carbon emission aircraft.

To kickstart a domestic sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry, the Government has made £227m available, since 2014, to support the development of advanced fuel plants. This includes investing in 8 SAF plants through the Green Fuels, Green Skies competition and more recently launching the £165m Advanced Fuels Fund. The Government has separately committed £12m to establish a UK SAF Clearing House to support the testing and certification of new SAF and £1m to run the first-ever passenger aircraft flight powered by 100% SAF, between the UK and the US, through the Net Zero Transatlantic Flight Fund. These investments are coupled with the £400m UK Government partnership with Breakthrough Energy Catalyst into emerging climate technologies, including SAF.