Most airlines invest in new planes, kerosene, personnel, and infrastructure, but not in agriculture or plantations to produce biokerosene. They still think that they can secure sufficient feedstock supplies from third parties. Personally, I do not think this is feasible in the near future. Meanwhile, starting 2012, the airlines face big carbon credit bills, which will reduce their net profits substantially, but most airlines still remain fairly passive.

I think that Cathay Pacific, based in Hong Kong, is one of the few airlines that really is one of the first movers, is proactive, and is prepared to make financial commitments, invest, and secure biofuel supplies in the near future. Cathay Pacific is a leading airline in Asia and, contrary to most airlines, it wants to be high up in the supply chain. Therefore, I think as a first mover Cathay Pacific will have an edge over the competition. The reason is simple: Cathay Pacific belongs to the SWIRE conglomerate and SWIRE has a big agricultural department. Among other things, they own agricultural land in Australia and palm oil plantations. So for the SWIRE group it is natural to weigh its options, to think outside the box, to invest in biofuel-producing plantations, and simultaneously to invest in a "biofuel drop-in”

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infrastructure at the airport. The new ultra modern Hong Kong airport is already fully equipped today to receive biokerosene as a drop-in fuel. Close by, on the island of Lantau, the airport has built the so-called New Permanent Aviation Fuel Facility. There are eight state-of-the-art storage tanks with a 264 000 m3 (2.2 million barrels) fuel storage capability dedicated for biofuels. Two supertanker berths have been built to offload the fuels and a dual undersea pipeline system connects the storage tanks with the airport. In the future the biokerosene can really be "dropped in” directly into Cathay planes. I do not think that any other airport in the world has already built such a comparable infrastructure!

The world’s airlines are going to spend more than $200 billion on kerosene yearly and the demand for sustainable biofuels is growing exponentially as well. Asian governments have a unique opportunity to stimulate and subsidize energy crops and waste conversion, and kick-start the development of new sources of green energy for the airline industry. Asia has a huge advantage over Europe: plants and trees grow very fast around the Equator all year round, and energy crops can deliver the lacking biomass for biofuels within 1-2 years. This is not possible in Europe.

Thus, Asian governments and Asian airlines have a one-and-only opportunity to take advantage of the hot and humid climate in Asia and the vast stretches of marginal land, and grow energy crops for sustainable aviation biofuels.

The Asia-Pacific region, with important hubs like Jakarta, Manilla, Taipei, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, and Hong Kong, is one of the fastest-growing aviation regions in the world. It became the largest aviation market in 2009. Economic growth can be achieved in a more sustainable way if Asian airlines take advantage of reducing their carbon footprint substantially by using biofuels, and invest in the complete value chain from plantations, refining, and logistics. This of course requires a different mind set!

Governments should be taking advantage of the potential boost to the green economy with home-grown jet fuel, and save on the energy bills from the oil — producing countries and oil majors.

In addition to energy crops, there is the exciting prospect of using municipal waste to produce biofuel. The mega-cities of Asia produce vast amounts of waste, and they can supply millions of tonnes of organic waste material and convert it into aviation biofuels.

At present, biofuels are far more expensive than jet fuel — often 3 times the price — and are available only in small quantities. I am sure that if the Chinese Government becomes involved in biofuel production in a big way, it will kick start developments across the region from other governments and the private sector as well.

Logistically, it is a much more simpler issue than providing biofuels for cars. Globally, aviation uses only 10% of the liquid fuels used for transport. It is also distributed through only 1600 airports worldwide, which fuel 95% of the world’s flights. This compares to over 161 000 gas stations in the United States alone.

The airline industry has a great opportunity to decarbonize air transport. The first movers will leave the other airlines standing. The oil giants are not providing

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the airlines with low-carbon, cost-effective, sustainably sourced fuel so the airlines and the governments have to do it themselves.