Alphabet’s Soup

American multinational technology company Google has joined the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) program overseen by American Express Global Business Travel (Amex GBT) and Shell Aviation.

Google’s collaboration with Amex GBT and Shell Aviation furthers the tech-giant’s ambition of reaching net-zero carbon-emissions across the entirety of its operations by 2030.

Google senior director of climate and energy Michael Terrell stated: "The use of SAF will play a critical role in helping the aviation sector on its path to decarbonize. Joining Amex GBT’s sustainable aviation fuel program further represents Google's continued efforts to accelerate the global transition to a carbon-free future." 

By bringing together major corporations the likes of Google, Aon, Bank of America, Delta, Cathay Pacific, JetBlue, and Japan Airlines, the SAF program presided over by Amex GBT and Shell Aviation demonstrates, ostensibly, the manner in and extent to which the private sector is capable of driving systemic change and financing the actualization of overreaching world governments’ draconian and demonstrably unrealistic net-zero edicts.

Launched in 2022 with one-million-gallons of SAF made available to corporate customers, the Amex GBT/Shell Aviation SAF program seeks to aggregate demand for Sustainable Aviation Fuels—driving down the unit price and hastening industry acceptance of such.

American Express Global Business Travel president Andrew Crawley remarked: “Business travel is a crucial passenger segment for aviation, accounting for around 15-percent of air travel globally and generating around forty-percent of revenues. To have Google join our growing SAF program demonstrates how corporate collaboration can accelerate aviation’s transition to net zero and enable more sustainable travel.” 

Alleging air-travel accounts for some ninety-percent of business travel emissions, climate activists contend sustainable business travel is contingent upon the address of aviation’s dependence upon fossil fuels. According to the companies that synthesize, sell, and promote the stuff—SAF is capable of reducing engine lifecycle carbon-emissions by as much as eighty-percent.

Environmental groups argue SAF occasions the aviation industry’s most promising pathway to decarbonization and decry the fact SAF represents less than 0.1-percent of global aviation fuel supply and costs up to eight-times as much as conventional petroleum jet fuels.

By contemporaneously leveraging Shell Aviation’s airline customers and the purchasing power of Amex GBT’s 19,000+ corporate customers. The leadership of the aforementioned concerns posit the cost of SAF can be co-funded, thereby helping scale its use and compelling capital investment in additional production facilities and technologies conducive to the establishment of economies of scale.

Shell Aviation president Jan Toschka set forth: “It’s great that through the Avelia program Shell Aviation will supply SAF to support Google in cutting emissions from its corporate flying. Considering Google’s stature and prominence this announcement represents an important milestone for decarbonizing aviation. As scaling the uptake of SAF will only be possible if all parts of the aviation value chain work together, we’re thrilled to work with such an influential and forward-thinking company.”

The Shell Aviation/Amex GBT SAF program is supported by Avelia, a blockchain-powered digital SAF book-and-claim solution for business travel. Avelia utilizes blockchains to provide allegedly clear and transparent tracking of SAF’s “environmental attributes.”

FMI: https://aveliasolutions.com