Thompson Airways Biofuels Flight Wont Make Flying Any Greener Says FoE
7 October 2011
Yesterday (6 October) saw the UK's first commercial flight powered by biofuels take off on to the Canary Islands, causing a wave of controvery
The Thomson Airways flight will see one of the plane's engines run on a mixture of standard fuel and biofuel made from waste cooking oil.
Thomson hailed the flight as the start of a new era that would take aviation beyond fossil fuels, but environmental campaigners have questioned the pilot project, saying that could end up doing more harm to the environment than good.
Thomson had originally planned to launch a series of test flights in July running on used cooking oil, but the company was unable to source enough fuel in time and had to postpone.
Environmental campaigners, Friends of the Earth (FoE), claim it would take the average person around a hundred years to save up enough chip fat to fly from Birmingham to Lanzarote on a one-way flight.
The charity said it is concerned that lack of availability of cooking oil will mean the company will use unsustainable alternatives when it launches daily biofuel flights next year.
Thomson's parent company TUI is already looking into soya and palm oil for its Thomson Airways fleet - which, according to FoE, are known drivers of rainforest deforestation.
Greener Flights?
The project has the support of MPs and the government's aviation minister, Theresa Villiers, who said: "Sustainable biofuels have a role to play in efforts to tackle climate change, particularly in sectors where no other viable low carbon energy source has been identified - as is the case with aviation. We want aviation to flourish and grow but we have also been clear that the environmental impacts of flying must be addressed."
Kenneth Richter, biofuels campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said: "Biofuels won't make flying any greener - their production is wrecking rainforests, pushing up food prices and causing yet more climate-changing emissions. The government must curb future demand for flights by halting airport expansion, promoting video conferencing, and developing faster, better and affordable rail services."
Once hailed by green campaigners as an alternative to fossil fuels, biofuels are now regarded as more environmentally destructive than the fuels they replace.
Natural oils such as palm oil are now hugely valuable globally traded commodities, which has led to the widespread destruction of rainforest in countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia.
There have been moves to set up standards that would ensure any biofuels from oils such as palm oil come only from environmentally sustainable sources, but the supply is still only a fraction of the demand for plant-based oils.
Darrel Moore
