Sustainable aviation fuel is being made available to business jets arriving and departing from the World Economic Forum this week in Davos, Switzerland for the first time.

This year’s theme for the gathering of political, business, cultural, and other leaders is “Stakeholders for a Cohesive and Sustainable World.” Despite the environmental focus, the World Economic Forum has historically prompted the deployment of hundreds of private planes to transport wealthy delegates, as the Telegraph’s Russell Lynch pointed out.

Now, under a new deal announced today, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) will be an option for Davos-bound flights. The Business Aviation Coalition for Sustainable Aviation Fuel, the World Economic Forum, and Zurich Airport say they have secured agreements to make SAF available.

Neste, which produces renewable diesel and renewable jet fuel refined from waste and residues, said that the company plans to deliver its renewable jet fuel to the airport during the forum.

“As a result of close collaboration between Neste, Jet Aviation, and Zurich Airport, this sustainable aviation fuel will be blended with fossil jet fuel,” Neste said. Neste MY Renewable Jet Fuel has as much as an 80% smaller carbon footprint compared to fossil jet fuel, according to the company.

In another first, operators flying into Davos can purchase SAF supplies even at airports where the fuel isn’t available through a payment-transfer initiative called “book-and-claim,” according to the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA). The DC-based organization represents more than 11,000 companies and professionals in the business aviation community.

“The initiative will be in place at New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport outside New York City, Laurence G. Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts, and Dulles International Airport outside Washington, DC,” the NBAA said. SAF will also be consumed through a routine operation at California’s Van Nuys Airport, the organization added.

Doug Carr, NBAA’s vice president for regulatory and international affairs, told Aviation International News online that sustainable fuels represent one of the best measures available to help address carbon emissions in general.

Pointing to sustainable aviation fuel demonstrations that the association has done with airports internationally, Carr added that the more places where they can demonstrate that the fuel is available and customers can ask for it, the more places where SAF will show up. Supply — and a drop in price — will accompany that demand, he said.

Source: Environment + Energy Leader