Story by Owen Mandovha, Business Reporter
ZIMBABWE is making tremendous progress in the sustainable aviation fuel pilot project being administered by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) aimed at propelling the country towards producing environmentally-friendly aviation fuel.
Last year, Zimbabwe was the ICAO natural pick alongside six other African countries for its Sustainable Aviation Fuels pilot project to discard fossil fuels in airlines which account for 4 percent of greenhouse gas emissions.
A stakeholders’ workshop was held in Harare this Thursday to discuss implementation of the findings of the project.
“ICAO chose Zimbabwe for this global initiative and we are very satisfied with how the project is progressing. This workshop seeks to bring stakeholders together to establish a framework to implement the business implementation stage so as to establish the production of aviation fuels which are environmentally friendly,” ICAO Executive Director, Mr Caesar.
The Deputy Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Honourable Joshua Sacco credited the country’s diverse natural resource endowment and the prospect of a regional aviation fuel hub.
He said, “The pilot project puts Zimbabwe on the global spotlight in aviation and if successful, it harnesses our status as a regional aviation hub. The project is progressing well because there is a target to reduce carbon emissions from aviation fuels by 5% by 2030, hence the transit into the next stage shows that we are indeed on course and it was no fluke that we were chosen among the seven African countries.”
Last year, nearly US$300 billion was spent on aviation fuels globally and Zimbabwe has the potential to become a major player in aviation industry.
“There is a huge potential in us to be a key player, given that we have sufficient resources and ideal climatic conditions to produce aviation fuels. This provides a huge impetus to the economy given that even if we produce just 1 percent of sustainable aviation fuels, we can get significant income from such,” Air Zimbabwe’s chief executive officer, Mr Edmund Makona said.
The jatropha oil crop, caster beans and sugarcane which can largely be grown in Zimbabwe are ideal for the production of aviation fuels which have minimal negative impact on the environment.
