Can biofuel help clean up airline emissions?
Marketplace All-in-One
Marketplace
4.5 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 5 December 2023
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Last week, a Virgin Atlantic passenger jet traveled from London to New York powered 100% by sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF. The low-carbon fuel came from feedstock that included used cooking oil and waste animal fats. Critics call the flight a gimmick, and to be clear, right now SAF makes up a tiny slice of the fuels airlines use to get us places. Marketplace’s Lily Jamali spoke with Louise Burke, an energy analyst and vice president of business development at Argus Media, who says that could change.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, this is Varun from Singapore. Despite not living in the United States, |
| 0:07.6 | Marketplace is my go-to for unbiased reporting into the news and events that matter around the world. |
| 0:15.6 | Join me by making a gift to marketplace today at marketplace. |
| 0:20.3 | org |
| 0:21.0 | slash donate. Could used cooking oil replace crude from American public media, this is Marketplace Tech. |
| 0:35.0 | I'm Lily Dramale. An estimated 80, 80,000 people have descended on Dubai for COP28. |
| 0:51.4 | This latest gathering focused on multilateral cooperation on climate change has record |
| 0:56.5 | attendance and a massive carbon footprint to match. Some world leaders and corporate executives flying there on private jets, we've been assured, |
| 1:06.0 | got there using sustainable aviation fuel, also known as SAFE. |
| 1:11.0 | Meanwhile, just last week, a Virgin Atlantic passenger jet traveled from London to New York, |
| 1:16.4 | powered 100% by Saf. It came from feed stock, including used cooking oil, waste animal fats, and what the company |
| 1:25.0 | called a small amount of synthetic aromatic kerosene. Critics call this a |
| 1:30.5 | gimmick and to be clear right now sustainable aviation fuel makes up just a tiny |
| 1:35.4 | slice of fuels that airlines use to fly us places but energy analyst Louise Burke of |
| 1:41.0 | the consultancy Argus media says that could change. |
| 1:44.4 | The big difference between sustainable aviation fuel and conventional jet fuel |
| 1:49.1 | is that there is a very specific difference in the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that are released into the atmosphere. |
| 1:56.5 | So these companies are essentially trying to reduce the GHG emissions. |
| 2:01.4 | The aviation sector in general is kind of one of the last remaining |
| 2:05.8 | industry sectors to really take a good look at this and see how they can they can |
| 2:11.0 | actually reduce their carbon emissions. |
| 2:13.0 | Which is a big problem for them, right? |
... |
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