Crops grown between food harvest cycles or on low-quality land are seen as green solutions for powering planes, but T&E’s new study shows that so-called ‘intermediate crops’ or crops grown on ‘severely degraded land’ could only meet 4% of the EU’s demand for bio-SAF by 2050.
Intermediate crops, grown during off-season, are increasingly promoted by European fuel policies as a solution for decarbonising Europe’s aviation sector. However, T&E’s new research estimates that it would only cover 4% of the EU’s aviation demand for biofuels by 2050. The study by Cerulogy, on behalf of T&E, shows that these crops bring significant environmental risks, and would only play a limited role in the decarbonisation of the aviation sector. The sector needs to focus on producing scalable green solutions like synthetic fuels, says T&E.
In theory, intermediate or ‘severely degraded land’ crops are more sustainable than traditional fuel crops as they don’t require new land: they are either grown on existing farm land between crop cycles or on low-quality land. However, the study shows that the claimed environmental benefits are severely undermined if these new crops disrupt crop cycles for food production or if fertiliser use is not strictly limited.
The research also shows that production potential is limited. Cerulogy identifies around 7 million hectares and 3 million hectares of potential suitable areas in the EU for intermediate and severely degraded land crops, respectively (....)