“Australians are the most competitive people I’ve ever come across. We should be leading the world on this. We should be making it into a world cup of how we produce[sustainable aviation fuel]. I think we’d win if that were the case,” Joyce told the conference on Thursday.
In addition to Australia’s landmass,the country’s range of assets provided an advantage over other regions who had already begun production,he said.
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Replacing jet-fuel with a sustainable fuel made from a mix of feedstocks and household waste would mitigate more than 65 per cent of the sector’s emissions by 2050.There’s now only enough produced to replace less than one per cent of the world’s flying,at more than double the price of jet fuel. Qantas currently spends $5 billion on jet fuel a year.
The global aviation industry is responsible for about 2.5 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions - a bigger contribution than Australia. Governments in Europe and the US have prioritised sustainable fuel production and the International Air Transport Association - of which Qantas is a member - has called on all governments to support sustainable fuel investment.
So far,Qantas has invested $307 million into developing Australia’s sustainable aviation fuel industry with Airbus and has committed to transition to 10 per cent by 2030 and 60 per cent by 2050. Joyce argues the challenge for overseas production is sourcing the feedstock,but Australia already exports household waste products to countries including India.
“We could be keeping it here,creating jobs and having a massive impact[on carbon emissions],” Joyce said.