ADVANCING SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE TOWARDS BIOFUEL ADOPTION IN AIR TRANSPORT INDUSTRY WITH A SOCIO-TECHNICAL PERSPECTIVE
pp.1213-1224
Societal concerns associated with aviation industry’s carbon-intensive nature and impending peak oil has become more pronounced over the last decade. With a potential to address both of these issues, the use of biofuels in aviation stands as the most promising pathway towards achieving sustainable air transport system. Significant progress continues to be made in overcoming technological and economic challenges of using 2nd generation biofuels in air transport industry. However, a truly sustainable and effective market deployment of aviation biofuels requires an extensive collaboration between feedstock providers, biofuel producers, governments, airlines, and the public. Thus, we deploy a multi-level perspective (MLP) framework to analyze these interactions on a micro- (niches), meso- (regime), and macro- (landscape) level. In particular, the framework captures the significance of international nature of air transport industry and the inter-industry dependencies of biofuel supply-chain. The results of this study highlight the barriers, drivers, and strategies for advancing social acceptance and establishment of sustainable aviation biofuel market.