'No need to stop flying' to achieve net zero, says Tory group

The manifesto, Taking Flight: A policy route to achieving jet zero, calls on the government to launch a Contracts for Difference (CfD) scheme to grow the UK’s sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) industry.

The CEN said a price support mechanism was needed to compete with tax breaks in the US and the EU’s sustainable aviation fuel mandate to win investment for British factories. The UK’s SAF industry is only on track to meet half of the government’s target for at least 10% of aviation fuel to be sustainable by 2030.

CEN said: “The move would give investors confidence to develop sustainable fuel plants in the UK and scale production by guaranteeing a fixed price set by auction, which will drive costs down over time. If the global market price dropped below UK-made SAF, the government would subsidise producers. Whereas if the UK price dropped below, producers would pay the profits back.”

The manifesto also calls for a £1 million competition for the first zero-emission domestic flight in the UK. CEN said the government should also require all public service obligation routes to be zero emission by 2030. 

A total of 32 Conservative MPs, MSPs and peers signed the manifesto, including former transport secretary Chris Grayling and ex-aviation ministers Robert Courts and Baroness Sugg.

Courts said: “We can reach net zero without restricting flying if we back the UK’s sustainable aviation sector. 

“Telling people they can’t go on foreign holidays or visit family abroad would undermine support for net zero. We need to look to innovation, technology and competition to solve this problem, not restrictions to ground people for good.”

Clive Wratten, Business Travel Association chief executive, said: “The report tackles the desperate need to negotiate the legitimacy of carbon-offsetting vendors and increase the infrastructure around sustainable fuels.

However, it is imperative that mandates such as these are rolled out for the wider travel supply chain to allow carbon measurement, reduction and offsetting for entire journeys, not just air travel.

He called for a percentage of Air Passenger Duty to be used to fund sustainable aviation fuel innovation.

“Put simply, we cannot innovate, offset and reduce without the support and financial buy-in from the government."