Recommendation 21

HM Government Acknowledged

The Government is committed to the use of carbon pricing, through the UK Emissions Trading Scheme (UK ETS) and Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), to drive cost-effective decarbonisation of the aviation sector. The carbon prices set out in the Jet Zero Strategy were not target carbon prices, but illustrative potential future carbon prices based on the best evidence at the time. The Government will continue to work to strengthen the UK ETS, including withdrawing free allowances for the aviation sector in 2026, and CORSIA, to drive decarbonisation in the sector. It should be noted that, as with carbon prices above, the emission savings from different technology solutions set out in the Jet Zero Strategy were not targets. This represented a scenario in which net zero could be met but there may be other combinations which could also reach this target. The Government does have specific targets to ensure Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) form part of the UK jet fuel mix, reaching 22% in 2040. DfT will continue to update analysis based on the best available information and monitor progress of individual technologies to ensure interventions are sufficient. The Government recognises there are risks to scaling up SAF production both domestically and globally to the level required to meet the targets set out in the SAF mandate. Setting ambitious targets in the SAF Mandate is itself a way to promote the supply of SAF from a diverse range of feedstocks. We are also providing grant funding to help grow the UK supply of SAF as well as helping to derisk SAF projects by legislating to introduce a revenue certainty mechanism. We are also supporting international SAF capacity building through initiatives such as ICAO’s ACT-SAF programme, helping other nations to scale up their domestic SAF production. The Government enforces penalties associated with specific aviation decarbonisation policies. The UK ETS has robust penalties for non-compliance, including a mandatory £100 penalty, multiplied by the inflation factor, for each emissions allowance an operator fails to surrender on time as well as further penalties for other violations like failure to report emissions. The Government consulted on applying equivalent penalties for non-compliance with relevant requirements in CORSIA,2 with penalties already in place for non-compliance with CORSIA’s reporting requirements. The SAF Mandate also includes a buy-out price of £4.70 per litre (£5 per litre for Power to Liquid (PtL) fuels) if there is an insufficient supply of SAF. Under the Mandate, civil penalties can also be issued for non-compliance up to a value of £100,000. International flights departing from the UK will be subject to the same overarching net zero by 2050 target for decarbonisation as UK domestic flights. In 2022, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) adopted a new Long-Term Aspiration Goal (LTAG) for global international aviation of net zero CO2 emissions by 2050. International aviation emissions associated with the UK will be monitored in the same way as domestic emissions and additional monitoring will take place at ICAO to assess progress towards LTAG. The UK is fully committed to global action on international aviation emissions and is taking a leading role in ICAO in developing and implementing environmental policies, measures, and standards in this area. The Government will continue to monitor and evaluate its progress in achieving net zero emissions from the sector by 2050. On 16 December, a Monitoring and Evaluation report commissioned by the DfT was published, which will help inform this process going forward. The carbon budget delivery process, under the Climate Change Act 2008, will act as the mechanism to ensure aviation is contributing to the economy wide net zero emissions target by 2050. These processes will allow the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero to assess how best to decarbonise across the economy considering the progress made by different sectors.