Photo courtesy of Lumin-osity
No doubt there was great rejoicing when the Labour Party selected Katie White to be its candidate for the Leeds North West constituency. Her environmental credentials made her an excellent choice. She can be proud of the fact that she campaigned for the passage of the Climate Change Act. She is clearly very knowledgeable about matters relating to climate change.
Yet she recently gave an interview to the Yorkshire Post in which she said she wanted Leeds Bradford airport to lead the environmental charge by using sustainable aircraft fuel.
The aviation industry knows that it’s in trouble: aviation currently accounts for about 7% of UK emissions. They are desperate to find technologies that will reduce that figure. But the aeroplane that can carry 200 holidaymakers all the way to the Mediterranean using hydrogen or an electric engine has not yet been built. They are unlikely to exist for many decades.
So, the industry and the UK government are putting their faith in so-called Sustainable Aircraft Fuel (SAF). Some of this is made from recycled cooking oil. But there isn’t enough old chip fat to go around. One alternative is to grow crops that can be processed into jet fuel.
There is a snag with this cunning plan: crops require land on which to grow. And that land is needed to grow food. Or the land is natural rain forest or another wild space. Scientists have calculated that if the entire world fleet of aircraft switched to SAF then a land area the size of South Africa would be required to grow the feedstock.[1]
This would add massively to the damage done by plantations for growing palm oil. The growth of palm oil plantations is recognised as a significant driver of deforestation and habitat loss. There is thus a huge question mark over the sustainability of sustainable aircraft fuels.
The government’s climate advisers, the Climate Change Committee have stated clearly that there should be no net expansion of UK aviation. This sensible advice was ignored by the previous government. It put forward a policy called Jet Zero. The Conservatives chose to believe that we could carry on flying more and more – the emissions would be dealt with by electric and hydrogen aircraft, carbon offsetting and sustainable aircraft fuels.
July 2024 brought a change of government but no change of policy. Labour appears to be just as committed to fantasy science as its Tory predecessors.
The Labour party has a dismal record on aviation – the Manchester Airports Group (MAG) owns and runs Manchester and Stansted. MAG is owned by a consortium of local councils in the North West of England. All are Labour controlled. Manchester and Stansted airports both have ambitious expansion plans. Luton airport is owned by the Labour-controlled Luton Borough Council. It also plans to increase passenger numbers.
Are any Labour MPs speaking out against this climate madness? Katie White doesn’t seem to be among them.
[1] Science of the Total Environment, volume 886, August 2023
