Simon Calder explains Virgin Atlantic's first 'sustainable aviation fuel' flightSource: Sky News
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00:00 the so-called tailpipe emissions, it's going to be generating exactly the same amount of
00:06 CO2, which obviously is concerning to climate campaigners.
00:11 What the airlines and indeed the engine makers, Rolls-Royce, say is that actually over the
00:18 lifecycle of the fuel that they're using, it's 70% less damaging.
00:26 That for example, if you're looking at the plant-based part, is that growing the plant,
00:31 they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
00:34 Effectively, all you're doing is taking that and generating the CO2.
00:40 A lot of environmentalists say there's all sorts of problems with this.
00:44 There are not the environmental benefits that are claimed for sustainable aviation fuel.
00:50 They are overstated.
00:51 Furthermore, you just can't get the stuff, 0.1% of all the fuel used on aviation around
01:00 the world comes from sustainable aviation fuel.
01:05 They say that you've got to scale this up, and you might just find that you run out of
01:10 chip fat and animal fat and solid waste, which is being turned into sustainable aviation
01:18 fuel.
01:19 It's a tricky one.
01:20 The airline says, you've got to start somewhere, and this is a really important proving flight.
01:26 There aren't going to be any paying passengers on board.
01:31 There is going to be Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Atlantic, as well as
01:35 Mark Harper, the transport secretary.
01:38 When it gets to New York, the engines have to be completely cleaned, the fuel tanks cleaned
01:43 out, and they'll just be using normal kerosene to get back.
01:48 They say, though, this is, for the next couple of decades, the future of flying.