At the World Efficiency event in Paris, five major French industrial groups—Air France, Airbus, Safran, SUEZ and Total—signed a “Green Deal”1 with the French government, which was represented by Nicolas Hulot, Minister for the Ecological and Solidarity Transition, and Bruno Lemaire, Minister of the Economy and Finance. This commitment will make it possible to study the economic and operational feasibility of a sustainable aviation biofuel industry in France.
The worldwide air travel industry, which is responsible for 2-3% of the earth’s human CO2 emissions, has had ambitious goals since 2009, vowing to stabilise CO2 emissions by 2020. The use of sustainable aviation biofuels was identified as one of the most promising methods for reducing CO2 emissions from air travel.
This Green Deal is based on a feasibility study designed to demonstrate the economic and operational viability of consistently using French-produced, sustainable aviation biofuels. For SUEZ and its partners, this also means assessing waste reserves that can be converted into aviation biofuels, such as used cooking oil, animal fat and crop residue primarily, followed by plastics and other solid recovered fuels (SRFs).
This new and innovative partnership between the French government and these industrial giants confirms their commitment to promote the circular economy and to accelerate the establishment of a new recycling sector.
As a global leader in sustainable resource management, SUEZ has a great deal of experience in developing new waste-to-energy industries. In 2016, we proved that it was possible to convert biogas from the sludge produced by sewage processing plants into liquid biofuels for commercial transportation services over long-distances. We are proud to be a part of this new partnership and to accept this challenge to further the energy transition.
Jean-Marc Boursier , Group Senior Executive VP - Finance & Northern Europe
