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The World Economic Forum has backed sustainable aviation fuel as the most promising decarbonation policy for aviation, delighting the developers of a £350 million refinery on the Humber.

The international organisation that engages business, political and academic leaders to shape global regional and industry agendas, said green investment and government support provides the most immediate action to achieve carbon neutral flying.

It has developed a report in collaboration with respected US strategic management consultancy McKinsey & Company, which states ‘a transition to SAF is within reach’ - with no changes to existing aircraft or airport infrastructure required, and enough sustainable feedstock available to fuel this shift.

“SAF is the most achievable and most effective pathway to reduce aviation’s lifecycle emissions in the immediate future,” it said.

Velocys is behind the first commercial scale production facility, backed by Shell and British Airways, with consented planning for a site at Stallingborough, between Grimsby and Immingham.

Henrik Wareborn, chief executive of Velocys, said: “McKinsey’s new report demonstrates there is a clear path for aviation to cut its emissions significantly through the use of sustainable aviation fuel. 

“Altalto, our planned facility in North East Lincolnshire, will be the first waste-to-jet-fuel facility of its kind in the º£½ÇÊÓƵ, taking hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste per year which would otherwise have gone to landfill or incineration to produce SAF that considerably reduces both greenhouse gas emissions and exhaust pollutants from commercial aviation.

“The McKinsey report confirms that there is ample solid waste feedstock available at a global level to supply projects like ours, and shows that aviation can be provided with enough SAF to meet long-term decarbonisation goals without the use of food crops and without causing land use change.”