Philippines to finalise SAF roadmap by July
Philippines government is working on developing a domestic sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) roadmap to spur local production of renewable jet fuels, as per reports by local media.
“The roadmap will be formulated in the first meeting in July of this year. So once the roadmap is finished, we can share it with you, or you may also participate in that discussion because the department always does public consultations,” Philippines Department of Energy (DOE) Undersecretary Rowena Christina L. Guevara said during German-Philippine conference.
With the tentative timeline set by Philippines to finalise SAF roadmap by July, the country’s Department of Science and Technology (DOST) and the DOE have issued a call for research proposals on SAF, with the DOST Industrial Technology Development Institute designated as a key research entity for this initiative.
Moreover, Philippine’s energy department said that with plans by Philippines to finalise SAF roadmap in the coming few months and improvement in regulatory and policy improvements, the country has seen a lot of appetite for investments in the green energy sector.
Philippines-based Cebu Pacific (CEB) started to use SAF in its Airbus 320neo with its ninth aircraft using SAF received on January 1, 2023 from the Airbus Hamburg facility in Germany.
There are reports that CEB is expecting 10 brand new Airbus NEO planes in 2023. To date, CEB has 55 Airbus planes which can be fuelled with SAF in its fleet.
On September 28, 2022, CEB operated its first commercial passenger flight from Singapore to Manila using SAF produced by Neste in Singapore, and supplied by Shell Eastern Petroleum at Changi International Airport.
Philippine Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, is also working toward developing sustainable fuel for its airline fleet. PAL supports the zero-emission initiative of the IATA.
Earlier, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) signed up to DHL’s sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) powered GoGreen Plus Service to help reduce the bank’s annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from shipping documents by 90%.