Launching the new SASHA Coalition

Our SASHA Coalition kick-off event Fuelling the Future asked the question: how will green hydrogen and direct air capture decarbonise shipping and aviation?  

We would love to hear from any companies interested in being a part of the SASHA Coalition – the first meeting for those interested will be on 8 June. Please email aoife@opportunitygreen.org if you are interested in joining. 

On Wednesday 24 May, we brought together representatives from the shipping and aviation industries to take a deep dive into the role of green hydrogen and direct air capture (DAC) in decarbonising their sectors.  

The webinar was called Fuelling the Future: How green hydrogen and direct air capture will decarbonise aviation and shipping. It featured a keynote address from The Rt. Hon John Gummer, Lord Deben, Chair of the UK Climate Change Committee, as well as a presentation of new research conducted by Arup on behalf of the coalition, and interventions from shipping and aviation industry leaders.   

In his keynote address, Lord Deben laid out the scale of the challenge – and also the opportunity – highlighting that we need to work across multiple fronts to make the transition to sustainable fuels a success, with companies, national governments and international organisations all needing to take action – and soon.  

In summary: “We need to press the urgency of change”.  

Setting the scene 

Sally Prickett, Director of Hydrogen, CCUS and New Fuels in Arup’s Advisory team, set the scene for the day’s discussion by presenting exciting new research into the pathways to produce sustainable fuels in shipping and aviation, and the policy landscape in place to support this transition.  

Arup’s research found that hydrogen is a key feedstock for sustainable fuels with a significant number of likely pathways involving green hydrogen, demonstrating the energy carrier’s importance in decarbonising these sectors.  

Sally reinforced that producing green hydrogen at scale will be “absolutely vital” to decarbonising the sectors. She concluded that at this crucial point for the industry, the SASHA Coalition will play an important role in bringing together key players across both the aviation and maritime industry to advocate for how feedstocks are assessed, produced and fed into sustainable fuel pathways.  

The importance of green hydrogen and DAC was echoed by industry representatives Luisa Puccio, Director of Shipping and Trade Policy at the European Community Shipowners’ Association (ECSA) and Laurent Donceel, Acting Managing Director of Airlines for Europe (A4E).  

Luisa highlighted that, together with aviation, shipping is one of the hardest sectors to abate, and that to meet emission reduction targets sustainable fuel needs to be available for shipping.  

Laurent added to this by sharing that hydrogen-powered aircraft alone could abate roughly 60 million tonnes of CO2 on intra-European routes by 2050 – equating to roughly one-fifth of the whole carbon footprint of the aviation sector in Europe.  

Is the policy in place to support the transition to sustainable fuels? 

Despite the importance of green hydrogen and DAC in producing sustainable shipping and aviation fuels, there was consensus from our panellists that policy and regulations must go further to make this transition a reality. All panellists echoed Lord Deben in saying there is a role for industry and government in driving the transition to sustainable fuels forward.  

Importantly, there was a view that policy and regulations supporting the development and deployment of hydrogen-derived fuels for shipping and aviation must go beyond just transport policy.  

Laurent Donceel said, “We cannot have these discussions about aviation and shipping without thinking about the wider environmental and energy policy mix.” He also highlighted the need for cross-policy discussion extending to how we address the obstacles the industry will face around access to finance, energy supply and infrastructure requirements.  

For example, Luisa Puccio flagged that the EU’s Net Zero Industrial Act could go further to highlight the strategic importance of technologies needed to translate hydrogen into sustainable fuels.  

Paving the way for the SASHA Coalition  

The need for supportive and cohesive policy is why we’re launching the SASHA Coalition. As Opportunity Green’s CEO Aoife O’Leary outlined during the webinar, SASHA will bring together industry leaders from shipping and aviation to send a clear message that both green hydrogen and DAC will be central to their decarbonisation pathways.  

It will also call for policymakers across transport, energy and industry to be aligned on policies and regulations around green hydrogen and DAC – ensuring they’re used in the most effective way.  

If you weren’t able to catch the webinar, you can find a full recording here. 

We would love to hear from any companies interested in being a part of the SASHA Coalition – the first meeting for those interested will be on 8 June. Please email aoife@opportunitygreen.org if you would like to join.