The Hon Catherine King MP
CSIRO sustainable aviation fuel roadmap launch
CATHERINE KING: Well, good morning, everybody. It's terrific to be here out at CSIRO's Black Mountain site in this bright early Canberra morning. And of course, I'm here with Maria Fernandez from Boeing and James Deverell from CSIRO. And we're here today launching the SAF Roadmap that CSIRO have been doing an enormous amount of work on. Of course, we know that aviation is absolutely critical to our way of life. It connects us to our families, it connects us to workplaces, it connects our goods to international markets, and it connects us to the world. But we also know that aviation is one of the hard to abate sectors and it's a challenging sector to abate. And as we head to our net zero emission target, aviation is very keen to play its role into contributing to getting to net zero. That's why the work that CSIRO has done in this Sustainable Aviation Fuel Roadmap is so important. We know that aviation currently represents around 2.5 per cent of global emissions, and getting that down is going to be incredibly important. It's why the government has established a Jet Zero Council that CSIRO and Boeing are participating in, which we're very delighted to have them there. It's why we're developing a transport roadmap towards net zero. It's why the government has put $30 million into SAF production. And it's why I know Minister Husic is so delighted that this work is being done. I'm going to hand to Maria Fernandez and then James is going to speak after that.
MARIA FERNANDEZ (Boeing President APAC): Thank you so much Minister. Boeing's really proud of the 34-year relationship that we have with CSIRO. And the release of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Roadmap is a key milestone in us continuing to deliver cutting edge aviation science. The roadmap clearly shows and demonstrates the opportunities available to Australia to produce SAF domestically. And that's really important because sustainable aviation fuel can reduce emissions by up to 85 per cent over the fuel life cycle.
At Boeing, we have a four-pronged decarbonization strategy, but by far, SAF will do the heavy lifting. The report and the in-depth study that was undertaken shows that Australia needs a sustainable aviation fuel policy framework that will facilitate growth of supply through research and development, investment and finance, and through setting standards. The commercial aviation industry is set to grow more. We forecast that over the next 20 years, there will be more than 42,000 commercial jets globally and many of those in the Asia Pacific region. Sustainable aviation fuel is critical to the decarbonization of the aviation industry, and aviation is critical to Australia being able to meet our emissions reduction targets. This is a roadmap to decarbonisation, energy security, more jobs in regional areas and a new market. But it can only be achieved through collaboration and leadership. Leadership like the Minister and the Government are showing in the Jet Zero Council. And we are really proud to be part of that. It can only happen through collaboration with industry and research. So I'll hand over to James.
JAMES DEVERELL(CSIRO Futures Managing Director): And thank you, Minister, for joining us here this morning for the official launch of the CSIRO Boeing Sustainable Aviation Fuel Roadmap for Australia. This roadmap is just one of the many ways that CSIRO, as the national science agency, is supporting Australia's energy transition. Through our Towards Net Zero Mission. We're working with industry, research, government and communities to help reduce emissions in our hardest to abate sectors here in Australia, which includes aviation by 50 per cent by 2035.
We're also incredibly proud to be here with our partner Boeing this morning. And this is just another great example of the way that we've collaborated for over 34 years now to help solve some of the biggest challenges in the aviation sector through science-based solutions. And when I think about the challenges aviation faces today, certainly there's none bigger than hitting the sector's target of net zero emissions by 2050. That's because, although the sector only accounts for about 2.5 per cent of emissions globally, it truly is one of those hard to abate sectors. Unfortunately, the solutions that work well here on the ground, things like electrification, don't translate well up into the air. Electric planes at the moment really are only viable for the very shortest of flights. And that's why Sustainable Aviation Fuel, or SAF, is going to be so important to help the sector decarbonise.
The roadmap that we're releasing today with Boeing shows that Australia has the potential to be a major producer of SAF to support both our domestic and international flights. We currently have feedstocks here in Australia that could support production of up to 5 billion litres of SAF by 2025 and up to 14 billion litres of SAF by 2050. That would account for about 90 per cent of the projected demand for aviation fuel here in Australia.
Initially, that SAF production would be through pathways that we call biogenic pathways, that uses things like use cooking oil, tallow and other wastes, or things like seed oils or carbohydrates like sugar cane to produce SAF. Those pathways are already in use at commercial scale around the world. In the longer term, we have the potential to produce SAF from green hydrogen and from CO2 that we can pull directly from the air, and that could help reduce emissions even further. If we can scale up SAF production here in Australia, not only would it help us reduce emissions, it also could help our strategic fuel security here in Australia and could help create opportunities and jobs for regions.
The roadmap we're releasing today is really just the first step. It outlines the opportunity, and it shows the pathways that Australia can take to get us there. There's obviously a lot of work ahead of us and CSIRO, as the national science agency looks forward to continuing to work with our industry and government partners to help support the development of the sustainable aviation fuel sector here in Australia. Thank you.