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Fuel effects
08 July 2008
Can low CO2 fuels help save commercial aviation from unwanted regulation and restrictions on its growth? Geoff Hearn investigates.
News about rising oil prices makes gloomy reading for airline executives, but commercial aviation's impact on climate change is generating its own negative headlines.
As environmental campaigners become increasingly critical, commercial aviation is increasingly looking to the use of low CO2 fuels to reduce its carbon footprint and help convince regulators that the industry should be allowed to continue growing.
Finding a solution to commercial aviation's appetite for jet fuel (kerosene) had become a matter of urgency even before the latest rises in oil prices. Environmental issues are already impacting the industry's finances as the risk of regulation and restrictions on growth are being factored into airline and aircraft valuations.
The industry continues to protest its innocence by pointing out its small contribution (about 2%) to man-made CO2 production, which itself is said to represent only 3% of global sources.
Environmentalists are deeply sceptical of these figures. Campaign organizations suggest...
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