SAF Roundtable Forum in Adelaide

Project team leader, Professor Shane Zhang, delivered the opening remarks, acknowledgement of Country and introducing the project background to our participants. He highlighted the urgency of aviation decarbonisation, noting that although aviation currently represents 2.5% to 3% of global emissions, this could rise to 22% by 2050 as other sectors decarbonise more quickly. He underscored the importance of #SAF as a potential solution in this hard-to-abate sector.

Julie-Anne Nichols, Director of Business Engagement at the National Foundation for Australia-China Relations, delivered the welcome remarks. She welcomed all delegates from various industries and emphasised that this inaugural forum not only demonstrates the Foundation's strong commitment to deepening the relationship between Australia and China but also has the potential to bring more green business opportunities for both countries.

Our speakers include Professor Zhang Anming, the Vancouver International Airport Authority Chair Professor in Air Transportation at the University of British Columbia and President of the Air Transport Research Society (ATRS); Oli Madgett, Head of Special Projects at FarmLab; Professor Rachel Burton, the plant molecular biologist specialising in plant cell wall biology; Heather Bone, Director of ESG for Team Global Express (TGE) and & Chair of the Australian Logistics Council’s Sustainability Committee; Margy Osmond, Chief Executive Officer of the Tourism & Transport Forum Australia (TTF); Director Zhenxia Zhang from HENAN JUNHENG INDUSTRIAL GROUP BIOTECHNOLOGY COMPANY.,LTD.; Patty Therrios, Head of Strategy and Sustainability at Adelaide Airport Limited; Jonathan Cheong, Head of Aviation Business Development & Commercial at Adelaide Airport.

Our panellists include Stella Biggs, Acting Green Economy Business Development Manager at Invest SA; Chris Monsour, Agronomist at Prospect Agriculture; Dr Lucas Tisdall, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tisdall Aviation Group; and Dr Tian Shi, Senior Environmental Planner at the Department of Primary Industries and Regions, South Australia.

The inaugural SAF Roundtable Forum concluded with remarks from Professor Jacqui Ramagge, Executive Dean of UniSA STEM. Prof Jacqui commended the SAF project team for hosting this roundtable forum, facilitating important discussions on SAF and aviation decarbonisation.

In his closing remarks, Professor Shane thanked the #NFACR Foundation for their support, as well as the leadership of UniSA STEM and C-EDGE. He also acknowledged the efforts of team members Prof Alec Zuo, A/Prof Paul Lee, Dr Xin Deng, Dr Yifei Cai, Dr Zhifang Wu, Zahra Jaffary, Yuchao Xu, and all the supporting staff who made this event possible. Prof Shane extended his gratitude to all industry and academic participants for their valuable input into this meaningful discussion and looked forward to their ongoing support in the future.