As the aviation industry lobbies for sustainable jet fuel, new tax breaks could help lower the carbon footprint of business travel. Illustration of a jet's shadow over a field sunflowers. Credit: Shutterstock/Scharfsinn U.S. airlines use sustainable fuel in less than 0.1 percent of flights. Yet the government wants 10 percent of the industry to run on sustainable fuel by 2030, and to reach 100 percent by 2050. The scale of the challenge is massive: United Airlines used 7 million gallons of sustainable fuel last year, according to company spokesman Sam Coleman. "That was a threefold increase from the year before, which is great, except that United Airlines burns between 3 and 4 billion - with a B - gallons of fuel every year." Air travel creates 2 percent of the world’s CO2 emissions and 12 percent of transportation emissions, according to the Department of Energy. There will be a projected 40.1 million flights in 2024, up from 36.8 million the year before. Put simply, air travel simply isn’t anywhere close to being sustainable. Yet chief sustainability officers - looking to reduce the carbon footprint of their business travel operations - would dearly love it to be. The Biden administration sought to change that April 30 when it announced that producers of corn- and soy-based jet fuel who use "climate-smart" farming practices will be eligible for new tax credits. The administration’s guidance, which isn’t final, could help other businesses reduce the carbon footprint of their employees’ travel. Salesforce, for one, plans to buy sustainable fuel certificates for 5 percent of its Scope 3 emissions for air travel. The move came after the launch April 29 of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel Coalition (SAFC), a lobby group of 40 aviation businesses including American Airlines and United Airlines. The group will push for increased investment in sustainable fuel. SAF makes up more than two-thirds of the... |