Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department is taking steps to help support the development of (a) hydrotreating kerosene and (b) other cleaner aviation fuels.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In July 2022, Government confirmed that a SAF Mandate would be introduced in 2025 requiring at least 10% (around 1.5 billion litres) of jet fuel to be made from sustainable feedstocks by 2030.
In the second SAF mandate consultation, it was proposed that increasing targets be set out in legislation from 2025-2040. The levels of these targets will be confirmed in a Government response to the consultation due to be published in Spring 2024.
The SAF mandate will support SAF produced using a range of feedstocks and technologies including biofuels from waste materials via the hydrotreated ester fatty acids process.
Our £135m Advanced Fuels Fund is supporting 13 different SAF projects reach commercial scale in the UK. These cover a range of technologies to drive innovation and diversity of supply. Once operational, these projects are expected to collectively produce over 700 kilo tonnes of SAF and reduce CO2 emissions by 2.7 million each year.
In September 2023, the Government also committed to introduce a revenue certainty mechanism to support SAF production in the UK. The intention is that it will be industry funded. The mechanism will provide revenue certainty for SAF production, supporting investor confidence in UK SAF projects.
Asked by: Kenny MacAskill (Alba Party - East Lothian)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has targets for the commercial use of sustainable aviation fuel.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
In July 2022, Government confirmed that a SAF Mandate would be introduced in 2025 requiring at least 10% (around 1.5 billion litres) of jet fuel to be made from sustainable feedstocks by 2030.
In the second SAF mandate consultation, it was proposed that increasing targets be set out in legislation from 2025-2040. The levels of these targets will be confirmed in a Government response to the consultation due to be published in Spring 2024.
The SAF mandate will support SAF produced using a range of feedstocks and technologies including biofuels from waste materials via the hydrotreated ester fatty acids process.
Our £135m Advanced Fuels Fund is supporting 13 different SAF projects reach commercial scale in the UK. These cover a range of technologies to drive innovation and diversity of supply. Once operational, these projects are expected to collectively produce over 700 kilo tonnes of SAF and reduce CO2 emissions by 2.7 million each year.
In September 2023, the Government also committed to introduce a revenue certainty mechanism to support SAF production in the UK. The intention is that it will be industry funded. The mechanism will provide revenue certainty for SAF production, supporting investor confidence in UK SAF projects.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Government is taking to support the use of renewable liquid fuels following the removal of renewable liquid fuel import tariffs from the US in February 2023.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government supports the use of renewable fuels in several ways. Regulations generate demand for them in the UK and provide a signal for future investments. The Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) scheme continues to support renewable fuels, which are primarily deployed in road transport, and delivers a third of transport’s carbon savings under carbon budget 4. The Government will introduce a similar mandate scheme to drive the deployment of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in 2025. We also have a track record of supporting UK production of advanced renewable fuels through grant funding programmes. Most recently the Advanced Fuels Fund (AFF) has allocated over £135 million of capital funding to 13 projects to support the development of a UK SAF industry.
Asked by: Gavin Newlands (Scottish National Party - Paisley and Renfrewshire North)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to section 158 of the Energy Act 2023, what his Department's timescale is for a public consultation on the options for designing and implementing a sustainable aviation fuel revenue certainty scheme.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government put forward a provision in the Energy Act that commits to publishing a consultation on the options for designing and implementing a revenue certainty scheme for sustainable aviation fuel within six months of the Act receiving Royal Assent, which happened on 26 October.
Asked by: Louise Haigh (Labour - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to page 73 of the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, which policy areas will receive funding from the £1.8 billion allocated to core net zero spend relating to the Department for Transport for the 2024-25 financial year; and how much funding as been issued to each of those policy areas for the 2024-25 financial year.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The £1.8 billion allocated to the Department for Transport for the financial year 2024-25 in the 2021 Spending Review supports net zero policies across zero emission vehicles (including buses) and electric vehicle charging infrastructure, the bus transformation funding to support local authority Bus Service Improvement Plans, air quality improvement measures, active travel policies, City Region Sustainable Transport Settlements, Nexus Metrofleet in Newcastle, rail electrification, and the UK’s production of sustainable aviation fuel.
£333 million of the £1.8 billion was reallocated to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, (now the Department for Business and Trade), for the electrification of UK vehicle manufacturing and their supply chains, including through the Automotive Transformation Fund Programme.
The Department’s business planning process for 2024-25 financial year remains ongoing and final plans will be published in due course as per standard practice.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to ensure that projects that received alternative fuels fund round 1 grants remain viable.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Our Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) programme is one of the most comprehensive in the world. The Government’s Advanced Fuels Fund has allocated £135m across 13 projects to support private investment in UK SAF projects by overcoming perceived technological and construction risks and will support our industry shared aim to have at least five commercial SAF plants under construction in the UK by 2025.
Our SAF mandate that will be in force from 2025 and in September, the government committed to design and implement a revenue certainty mechanism to support SAF production in the UK.
Asked by: Philippa Whitford (Scottish National Party - Central Ayrshire)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he is taking steps to ensure that sustainable aviation fuel projects can start construction in 2025.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Our Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) programme is one of the most comprehensive in the world. The Government’s Advanced Fuels Fund has allocated £135m across 13 projects to support private investment in UK SAF projects by overcoming perceived technological and construction risks and will support our industry shared aim to have at least five commercial SAF plants under construction in the UK by 2025.
Our SAF mandate that will be in force from 2025 and in September, the government committed to design and implement a revenue certainty mechanism to support SAF production in the UK.
Asked by: Baroness Randerson (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will respond to their consultation on sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) mandate published on 30 March 2023; whether it is still their policy to have five SAF plants under construction by 2025; and, if so, what is their progress towards meeting that target.
Answered by Lord Davies of Gower - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The Government is on track to introduce the UK sustainable aviation fuels (SAF) mandate in 2025, with a target of at least 10% SAF in UK jet fuel by 2030. We will publish the government response to the second mandate consultation, setting out our final policy positions, in the Spring.
There are currently two commercial-scale sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) plants operational or under construction in the UK. The Government’s Advanced Fuels Fund has allocated £135m across 13 projects to supporting our aim to have at least five commercial SAF plants under construction in the UK by 2025.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of prioritising sustainable aviation fuel when securing non-recyclable municipal solid waste as a feedstock, in the context of the number of available near-term options for decarbonising the aviation sector.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government confirmed that a Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) mandate would be introduced in 2025 requiring at least 10% (around 1.5 billion litres) of jet fuel to be made from sustainable feedstocks by 2030. Recycled carbon fuels such as non-recyclable municipal solid waste have the potential to become a key feedstock for UK produced SAF, and supporting them via the SAF mandate will broaden the existing feedstock pool. This is consistent with the Government’s approach to waste policy as guided by the waste hierarchy, where the best environmental outcome for waste that cannot be either prevented or prepared for reuse is for material to be recycled. Where waste cannot be prevented, reused or recycled, the Government supports maximising the value of residual waste through recovering energy, including supplying electricity or heat, or through use as, or conversion into, a fuel. There are a range of recovery options - both established and emerging - available to waste handling operators, which will be selected according to market conditions and local needs, taking account of the waste hierarchy and the need to ensure the best available environmental outcome for the waste. There is nothing preventing the production of fuel from residual waste if this is determined, by local authorities or other waste handlers, to be the best overall value for money and environmental outcome for such waste.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Transport:
When he plans to respond to the sustainable available fuel mandate consultation.
Answered by Anthony Browne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
A mandate to supply sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) will be introduced in 2025, leading to at least 10% SAF in UK jet fuel by 2030. Following the close of the second SAF mandate consultation in June 2023, the department has made significant progress in updating the evidence base and finalising the design of the Mandate. I can confirm that the government response will be published in spring 2024.