Aviation fuel: Trash landings
Subsidy adjustments revive BA's interest in producing jet fuel from waste
What a difference a day makes. The UK's Department for Transport, on 19 September, published changes to the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation directive. The amendments extended financial incentives beyond ground transport to include aircraft for the first time. This was enough to prompt British Airways (BA) to take another look at the idea, first mooted a few years ago, of converting hundreds of thousands of tonnes of household waste into sustainable jet fuel. With the subsidy changes recently announced, the economic feasibility of the scheme looks more optimistic. BA says it's partnering with Velocys, a renewable fuels company, to design a series of waste plants to create fuel. A final i
Also in this section
12 March 2026
Role of world’s largest carbon cap-and-trade market under scrutiny as war in Iran threatens to drive EU energy costs to unsustainable levels
10 March 2026
Europe urgently needs to bring more projects to FID, as CCS investors warn they might divert capital to faster-growing regions
9 January 2026
A shift in perspective is needed on the carbon challenge, the success of which will determine the speed and extent of emissions cuts and how industries adapt to the new environment
2 January 2026
This year may be a defining one for carbon capture, utilisation and storage in the US, despite the institutional uncertainty
