00:00Well, sustainable aviation fuel is low-carbon fuel that can power an aircraft.
00:05It can be made from bio-based sources and recycled materials,
00:09such as used cooking oil and animal fats.
00:12China is expanding its clean jet fuel production
00:14as part of its latest five-year development plan.
00:18In the first half of 2026, China launched 16 new projects,
00:23compared with only four across the rest of the world.
00:26State-owned companies account for nearly half of China's new clean jet fuel projects.
00:32That's helped triple production capacity plans compared with last year.
00:37China produces 1.7 million tonnes of clean jet fuel every year.
00:41It's a third of the world's total production.
00:44Of course, that's less than 1% of the actual amount of biofuel
00:48that would be required to power the entire aviation industry.
00:51The International Energy Agency estimates global demand for clean jet fuel
00:57could grow to 16 million tonnes of oil by 2030,
01:01with the EU, UK and other countries making it mandatory for use in fueling planes.
01:08Sarah Wilkin is founder and CEO of Fly Green Alliance.
01:11It's a low-carbon travel and transport group based here in London.
01:15Hello, Sarah. First of all, why is the cost of this alternative fuel so incredibly high?
01:24Yeah, it's a new technology.
01:26Just like any technology, it needs a lot of investment initially.
01:31Like any curve, it needs its hundreds of millions going into the billions of investments.
01:37So right now, we are working on scales of economy in the industry.
01:43It's a new process, so it just costs a lot more.
01:46Yeah. China's plans, they really ramped up production,
01:50and they're really committed to it, even getting sort of state-owned enterprises to do that.
01:55Do you think that could play a part in ultimately bringing down the price?
02:00The Chinese SAF right now is coming in a lot lower than the UK and Europe.
02:06There are now laws and mandates in the UK, as well as EU.
02:10However, the EU producers are actually not able to produce it as low cost as China.
02:17So right now, it is actually accelerating the type of SAF being made right now,
02:24and it is having a role in starting to bring that cost down.
02:29Yeah, I was reading a little bit about some of the major airlines
02:32that are actually sort of topping up with a little bit of low-carbon fuel,
02:36but it's still sort of less than 1%,
02:39and I presume that cost is the major barrier there, or is it also about supply?
02:45It's kind of a combination of both.
02:47It really is.
02:48So if you know anything about aviation economics, the margins are very low.
02:54So if you then triple the cost of fuel, which is around 60% of overall cost anyway,
03:00it essentially makes flying very expensive and not democratic as it is wanted to be today.
03:09So it is a combination.
03:11However, the scale of production isn't as fast as wanted.
03:17We have mandates, but it is only for some regions.
03:22And actually, as you rightly said, we need a global supply.
03:26Therefore, it is about accelerating the production.
03:33Now, actually, to build a production plan is taking around two years.
03:36However, getting that finance together and finding investment is actually taking –
03:41I've done the work in SAP for now seven or eight years with Fly Green Alliance,
03:45and I only just see it going into implementation now.
03:50So you can see it's long-term work that's happening.
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