Oslo airport’s 16,000km long biofuel controversy

Oslo airport is using renewable jet fuel made from waste cooking oil as part of its fuel mix, but the fact this fuel is being imported from California has led to question marks about its real environmental credentials, according to Reuters.

In 2016, Oslo became the first international airport to offer biofuels as part of the fuel mix it sells, with Los Angeles and Stockholm following soon after. This growing trend was part of an effort to lower the surging greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation industry.

"This is a tiny little drop (in fossil jet fuel use). But it is the first drop," said Olav Mosvold Larsen of state-owned Avinor, which runs 45 airports in Norway. He pointed out to Reuters that jet biofuels were twice the cost of conventional fuels.

In the last few months Avinor has started importing its waste cooking oil from AltAir, a Californian firm whose sources include fast food restaurants. This means Avinor’s jet fuel is having to be trucked and shipped over 10,000 miles (16,000km). Previously, Avinor’s jet fuel came from Spain.

Environmentalists say shipping biofuels from California to Norway doesn’t make sense.

“This is madness,” said Truls Gulowsen, Greenpeace. He told Reuters that European laws should do more to promote local production of biofuels, from sources such as Nordic forests. “Waste cooking oil should be used in California,” he argued.

Larsen said that despite the long journey Oslo airport’s biofuel supply had to undergo, there were still net environmental benefits. He claimed that the greenhouse gas emissions of transporting a litre of biofuel from California to Sweden were a fraction of those from burning a litre of conventional jet fuel.

Norway’s parliament is set to debate whether jet fuel sold in the country should be obliged to contain 1% biofuels from 2019. According to Reuters, that would be equivalent to about 11 million litres a year.