JZC Zero Emission Delivery Group meets for the second time at Bristol Airport

On Monday 31st October the Jet Zero Council Zero Emission Flight (ZEF) Delivery Group met for the second time, at Bristol Airport. The meeting was set for a day of briefings and visits to demonstrate the airport’s sustainability transformation work.  

The group heard presentations from the Bristol Airport team working on their infrastructure sustainability transformation and saw elements of the work already underway across the site, including solar panels, rain-water collection, and plans for electric vehicle charging point expansion. Bristol Airport also shared how it is managing its regional partnerships to deliver on its sustainability goals and lead on activities such as Hydrogen South West.  

Bristol Airport also demonstrated its fleet of low carbon air-side electric vehicles that have replaced its traditional fleet, providing services from passenger transport to quick response vehicles.

Chaired by Rachel Gardner-Poole from the Connected Places Catapult, the Delivery Group discussed a number of topics within the meeting: 

1. The group finalised the Terms of Reference which will shortly be published on the IUK KTN website. 
2. The sub-groups reported the outcomes from their initial meetings. Predominantly, the three sub-groups met to discuss and agree on their terms of reference, initial action plans and what work had already been done by individual members that could be shared in order to avoid duplication. 
3. Ben Harrop from The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Hydrogen Strategy Team discussed the role of hydrogen in the UK’s net zero and energy transition, including the estimated demand over time for hydrogen from aviation compared to other sectors,  such as heating buildings and maritime. The group was also briefed on how BEIS supports multiple production routes and what industrial projects are already underway across the UK. There are three key policy areas: Net Zero Hydrogen Fund to provide capital investment support, Hydrogen Business Model to provide revenue support, and the Low Carbon Hydrogen Standard to ensure the hydrogen HMG supports is genuinely low carbon. The team are also running a consultation on hydrogen transport and storage infrastructure, which is open until 22 November and can be found here. 
4. Tim Johnson provided an update on the Civil Aviation Authority’s (CAA)  work to future proof certification for ZEF technologies. He spoke about the vital international collaboration on net zero targets and how the CAA is strategically keeping pace with Industry on their technology development. He also noted the support already received from Government on activities such as Future Flight and the need to identify priority areas for policy development and the pipeline of regulatory change requests that will soon be coming to the CAA.
5. The group also took time to discuss and further plan the two-year ZEF delivery plan. This consists of what guidance and leadership the Jet Zero Council can provide and where the key interventions need to be on the road to 2050 on what actions need to be taken to deliver the UK’s ZEF ambitions.  The group plan to publish a two-year plan in 2023.

The next meeting of the ZEF Delivery Group is planned for January 2023.