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Meeting the UK’s SAF targets with crop-based fuels alone would consume vast farmland, equal to 12 times the size of Greater London by 2040.
Competition between biofuel and food production has long been shown to drive up food prices, as crops are diverted from food and feed into fuel instead.
Opening the SAF mandate to crop-based fuels would flood the UK market with subsidised U.S. imports, undermining UK farmers and existing biofuel producers.
Allowing crop-based SAF would distort the market and hold back investment in more scalable solutions like advanced biofuels and e-fuels.
Crop‑based fuels are a dead end for decarbonising UK aviation. They drive deforestation, push up food prices, and deliver weak or in some cases no climate benefits compared with cleaner alternatives. That’s why T&E UK is joining with other stakeholders to urge the government to continue to exclude them from the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Mandate.
Reopening the UK’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Mandate to permit crop-based fuels would be a damaging reversal, undermining one of the UK’s strongest climate policies. The mandate was deliberately designed to prioritise more sustainable, scalable fuels such as power-to-liquid, while excluding those that cause deforestation or compete with food production. Giving in to industry pressure now would weaken policy integrity, destabilise investor confidence, and cast doubt on the government’s £200 million commitment to green aviation, UK jobs, and long-term growth.
“Turning crops into jet fuel is a land grab dressed up as climate policy. Meeting the UK’s 2030 target with crop-based fuels would swallow up 4% of our farmland—enough to feed 750,000 families. By 2040, it could take 10% of UK farmland, nearly twelve times the size of Greater London. UK food prices are already stretching household budgets, the government shouldn’t allow a policy that makes the situation worse.’’ Anna Krajinska, T&E UK Director said.
In addition, claims that allowing crop-based fuels would help UK farmers or bioethanol producers don’t stand up to scrutiny. European bioethanol is roughly 24% more expensive than U.S. supply, and American producers already benefit from generous subsidies. With 90% of the UK’s bioethanol already imported, most of it from the U.S., opening the mandate would further entrench dependence on cheap, subsidised foreign fuel while leaving UK farming behind. Rather than backing UK industry, such a move would turn a UK green policy into a back‑door subsidy for U.S. ethanol producers.
“Rather than rewriting the rules to label crop-based fuels as ‘sustainable’, the government should double down on genuinely clean alternatives like some advanced biofuels and, more importantly, green power‑to‑liquid fuels,” Anna Krajinska added. “These fuels can deliver real climate gains and economic value, creating up to 60,000 UK jobs and £10 billion a year by 2050. Weakening the mandate now would shake investor confidence, waste scarce public funds, and squander the UK’s chance to lead in next‑generation aviation fuels. Retaining the exclusion of crop-based SAF isn’t just the climate‑safe choice, it's the smart industrial strategy for the UK’s aviation future.”
