Cop28: There are no quick techno-fixes for climate crisis

The reality is that that humanity is over-consuming finite resources and, in the process, heating up the planet dangerously while creating an epic global pollution crisis, writes John Gibbons

Virgin Atlantic’s world first 100% Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) transatlantic flight from London Heathrow to New York JFK was fuelled by around 50 tonnes of substances including tallow and cooking oil.

Earlier this week, amid media fanfare, a jet aircraft left London’s Heathrow Airport for New York, a journey that would, according to the UK’s Department for Transport, “make guilt-free flying a reality”.

This is the first such flight, powered entirely by ‘sustainable aviation fuels’, a combination of technologies the industry hopes will help to clean up its image as a major polluter and allay growing public disquiet over sky-high aviation emissions.