The IAG group, to which the Spanish airline Iberia belongs, will spend 900 million euros in the coming years to acquire SAF, the fuel that allows aviation to be decarbonised, but it will do so in the United States and the United Kingdom.
The reason? "It is not that we do not want to spend it in Spain, it is that this fuel is not produced here", warned Juan Cierco, the corporate director of Iberia during his speech at the conference European Funds III: Spain, for global leadership in the green and digital economy " , organized this Monday by El Diario.es.
The SAF is the acronym for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (sustainable fuel for aviation) that as explained in this same event by María Teresa Nonay Domingo
Director of Strategy and Planning at Enagás, "it is the only alternative for aviation to decarbonise". Nonay explained that since it allows the carbon footprint to be reduced between 40% and 80%, although currently only 0.2% of the needs of the aircraft are produced, due to the fact that it currently costs between two, three and five times more than current kerosene. "But compared to green hydrogen, it has the advantage that the current Saf is already a reality that can be used in current aircraft engines," said the Enagás executive.
“Meanwhile, none of us here will fly a hydrogen-powered plane. That will be seen by our children or perhaps our grandchildren,” Cierco pointed out.
The Iberia manager has charged against "the telescope policy" that focuses on hydrogen as a decarbonizing vector of the future. "If we wait for hydrogen to decarbonize the planes in 40 years, it may be that there are no more planes because the companies will have gone bankrupt," he warned.
To avoid this, Cierco has asked politicians to focus on "microscope politics" and really bet on the Saf, which currently ensures it has "zero euros of incentives", he pointed out in front of the speech of his colloquium colleague the director of Renewable Energies and Electricity Market of the Institute for the Diversification and Saving of Energy (IDAE), Víctor Marcos Morell who boasted of the interest of the Government of Spain for these fuels.
“Let's move from promises to action. Spain is not investing zero in developing Saf, the only fuel that can reduce aviation emissions”, Cierco denounced. Not doing so puts, according to the Iberia manager, the Spanish economy itself.
Cierco has pulled data to frame the magnitude of his alarm. “84% of tourists who arrive in Spain do so by plane, tourism is 14% of GDP and 12% of employment. If aviation goes into crisis, Spain goes into crisis. If there is a crisis, the companies do not invest, if there is no economic development, there is unemployment, and if there is unemployment, the elections are lost”, has launched the politicians who are facing the polls again.
The Fit for 55 package designed by the European Union requires energy producers to offer a minimum of 2% in 2025 and up to 80% in 2030. But these challenges, according to Cierco, fall short for Spain due to the peculiarities of its economy. . Not betting on it anymore and taking advantage of the funds from the European Union means that a company like Iberia transfers its purchases to countries like the US and the United Kingdom whose governments are encouraging this production to meet this challenge.
“Doing it in Spain would be strategic for the tourism industry, but not only. It will also be for rural Spain. A saf production plant can be located in a town in Extremadura and be in operation now, to prevent the flight of inhabitants who now have to abandon their origin due to lack of employment", pointed out the manager who finished his speech with a powerful "It's time we got down to business."
