Airbus a partner in biofuel initiative

The European Commission, Airbus, leading European airlines and European biofuel producers, have launched an exciting new industry wide initiative to try and speed up the commercialisation of aviation biofuels in Europe.

The inititive labelled "Biofuel Flightpath" is a roadmap with clear milestones which targets an annual production of two million tonnes of sustainably produced biofuel for aviation by 2020.

The biofuel will be produced in Europe from European sourced feedstock material and has the backing of The European Commissioner, Günther Oettinger, Airbus CEO Tom Enders, major European airlines, and a number of advanced biofuel producers.

The "Biofuel Flightpath" commits members to support and promote the production, storage and distribution of sustainably produced drop-in biofuels for use in aviation and to reach two million tonnes production and consumption by 2020.

It also targets establishing appropriate financial mechanisms to support the construction of industrial "first of a kind" advanced biofuel production plants.

"This is a unique opportunity to create the first industrial venture ever introducing sustainable biofuels for commercially competitive operations," said Mr Günter H. Oettinger, European Commissioner for Energy.

"The Commission therefore fully supports all efforts in this direction and will actively contribute to their success.

"They are fully in line with our European Strategic Energy Technology Plan."

"Airbus supports the speeding up of the commercialisation of sustainable biofuels for use in aviation," said Tom Enders.

"Our catalyst role is to bring together stakeholders such as advanced biofuel producers, airlines and lawmakers in value chains, in order to achieve this common goal more quickly.

"Only by working together can we meet our ambitious target to make air transportation truly sustainable."

More specifically the Biofuel Flightpath aims to:

* Facilitate the development of standards for drop-in biofuels and for their certification

* Work together with the full supply chain to further develop worldwide accepted sustainability certification.

* Facilitate dedicated aviation biofuel production at a reasonable cost by agreeing to tangible biofuel supply and purchase commitments.

* Promote appropriate legislative measures to ensure the market uptake of paraffinic biofuels by the aviation sector.

* Accelerate research and innovation into advanced biofuel technologies, including algae.

* Establish financing structures to facilitate sustainable biofuel projects.

* Publicly promote the benefits of replacing kerosene by sustainable biofuels.

The Biofuel Flightpath and a supporting technical document can be found at: http://ec.europa.eu/energy/technology/initiatives/biofuels_flight_path_en.htm