Last week, Virgin Atlantic was boasting about its Flight100, which travelled from London to New York using only sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

The fuel used was a mix of two different substances: one that’s made from waste fats, such as used cooking oil, and one made from waste plant sugars, such as the unused stalks from crops including corn.

SAF is the air industry’s big hope for reducing emissions, as there’s no hope of big, heavy planes being powered by batteries any time soon.

Lots of scientists working on SAF are very positive about it, but there are many others who aren’t so sure. Economics researchers Gareth Dale and Josh Moos said that Virgin’s sustainability claims are “anything but green” and “laughable” as SAF still gives off some CO_2.

The main concern is where all the SAF is going to come from, and there are very real worries that edible crops will be used instead to make SAF and that cropland will increase to meet the demand, which could involve cutting down trees to make space.

The Climate Change Committee (CCC) advises the Government to encourage people to fly less. But most people don’t want to give up their foreign holidays, and any Government that tried to make them would probably be very unpopular.

The Royal Society, the UK’s national science academy, put out a report earlier this year about reducing emissions. It said “there is no single, clear, sustainable alternative to jet fuel able to support flying on a scale equivalent to present-day use”.

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