Anglo-Dutch oil major shell and American Express Global Business Travel (GBT), which organises travel and meetings for businesses, have announced a collaboration aimed at promoting the availability and use of aviation fuel that is sustainable.
Aviation is currently attempting to decarbonise, as the current fleet is heavily reliant on fossil fuels, and aeroplanes with hydrogen or electric propulsion are still some years away. Shell’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) offers a near-to-medium-term solution to cut lifecycle emission by up to 80%. It is made from sustainable resources like biomass and cooking oil, and it can be blended with standard aviation fuel at up to 50% for use in existing aeroplanes.
Nevertheless, SAF remains a tiny fraction of total aviation fuel, so American Express GBT and Shell, which also now offers a carbon-neutral range of lubricant products, will work together to aggregate demand from airlines and other corporations, so the oil company can press ahead with making the necessary and significant investment that will be needed in order to be supplying large volumes of SAF to the aviation sector by 2025.
American Express GBT’s Chief Executive, Paul Abbott, said about this:
“Our approach with Shell could provide a turnkey solution for corporations working towards net zero emissions. We believe aggregating corporate and airline demand is the most efficient way to drive the volume of investment needed to bring change at scale.”
Abbott added that by collaborating with Shell, American Express GBT could help airlines and other corporations to make a real change by meeting their own emission-reduction targets.
