UAE: Ethiad Airways Backs Biofuels

James Hogan, Etihad Airways chief executive, said: "Etihad recognises the need for step-changes in aviation to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and meet our industry's carbon reduction goal. "We also recognise that any fuel alternatives must be morally, socially and environmentally acceptable, while not compromising the future sustainability of the aviation industry."

SAFUG members are bound by stringent criteria for the development of non-fossil fuels that include the development of plant sources in a manner that is non-competitive with food, with biodiversity impacts minimised and without jeopardising drinking water supplies.

Members must ensure that the life cycle of greenhouse gas emissions from plant growth, harvesting, processing and end-use is significantly less than that from fossil sources. In developing economies, development projects must include provisions or outcomes that improve socio-economic conditions for small-scale farmers and their families and that do not require the involuntary displacement of local populations.

High conservation value areas and native eco-systems should not be cleared and converted for jet fuel plant source development.
SAFUG members have pledged to work through the Roundtable for Sustainable Biofuels, a global multi-stakeholder initiative.
"Abu Dhabi, our home base, has itself made a strong commitment towards sustainability and in the promotion of renewable energy," Hogan said.

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