Encouraging a polluting industry to clean up its footprint requires leadership. And that’s what Andrew Chang is doing, as managing director of United Airlines Ventures, when it comes to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Jet planes contribute around 2% of global emissions. And this is only expected to increase in coming years. So, in 2023, Chang oversaw the launch of the Sustainable Flight Fund, a first-of-its-kind effort to invest in climate solutions for the airline industry. As of February, the fund had more than $200 million in committed capital from 22 corporate backers, including JetBlue Ventures and Air New Zealand. The goal is to scale up SAF and make it an affordable alternative fuel.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]What is the single most important action you think the public, or a specific company or government (other than your own), needs to take in the next year to advance the climate agenda?
Government has to be at the center of the next benchmark on climate action. The U.S. Inflation Reduction Act was the single most consequential piece of legislation to advance the energy transition. Now we need to follow that up with policy that will signal to the market that the government is willing to back a decades-long transition by deploying actual capital and support.
Unless the government is willing to take on meaningful risk on behalf of companies, consumers, and the technology itself, we will continue to see hesitancy in the market to back the capital-intensive technology inputs like hydrogen, carbon sequestration, and even nuclear. Government has the tools to use both carrots and sticks to guarantee that nascent industries don’t die before they reach commercialization.
What’s one sustainability effort you personally will try to adopt in the next year, and why?
As someone who leads a transportation-focused energy transition fund, I plan to switch to an electric vehicle. It’s not just my responsibility—solely as a consumer. The proliferation of low emissions vehicles will also have a direct and indirect impact on aviation’s ability to reduce its carbon emissions. In the short term, the aviation industry could access feedstock and infrastructure currently used in ground transportation (e.g., renewable fuel inputs, up to 17 billion gallons of ethanol production, logistics access). In the long term, EVs will accelerate the energy transition of the broader supply chain such as decarbonizing our energy grid, which will be the single biggest driver to transition industries across our economy, including aviation.
If you could stand up and talk to world leaders at the next U.N. climate conference, what would you say?
At the risk of sounding trite, the answer to me is less talk, more action. People working in the commercial sector are constantly invited to participate in panels and conferences. While collaboration and knowledge sharing are critical, we need action. We need money, R&D, and demonstrations of the kind of milestones that are measured in years, not months—like production plants and scaled technology.