It’s no secret that transportation has a giant carbon footprint – and that reducing emissions in the sector is fundamental to the fight against climate change. While it’s going to take technologies like electric and hydrogen to fully decarbonize the movement of people and goods, we do have options to reduce emissions now.
Sustainable fuels are available, and the supply is increasing rapidly. The production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) increased by 200% in 2022 alone.
But here’s the problem: you can’t pull up to any pump and fill your truck or plane with sustainable fuels. They are transported along existing supply chains and blended with fossil-based fuels. So there’s no way to track how much of it goes into one vehicle.
The energy industry faced a similar challenge. Most of us don’t live near a wind or solar farm, and we can’t control the source of the energy piped into our homes. But if we want to buy renewable energy, we can. It might not end up in our electrical outlets, but the money we spend pays for renewable energy production elsewhere.
The same concept now exists for sustainable fuels: a chain-of-custody model that tracks and documents environmental benefits of sustainable fuels – an accounting system now commonly referred to as “book and claim”.
It’s a virtual solution to a physical problem based on a one-atmosphere approach. All GHG emissions enter the same atmosphere, so as far as Mother Earth is concerned, it doesn’t matter which vehicle, vessel, or aircraft is burning sustainable fuels instead of fossil fuels.