
The Jet Fuel Crisis: What’s next for aviation?
From Outrage + Optimism: The Climate Podcast by Persephonica and Global Optimism
May 14, 2026 · 51 min · Season 12 · Episode 49
About this episode
The episode discusses the jet fuel crisis in aviation and its implications for the industry's dependence on fossil fuels.
Are flights across the world about to be grounded? Is a terrible war about to create an unlikely good news story for the climate? As conflict in the Middle East threatens the Strait of Hormuz, jet fuel shortages are forcing aviation to confront a structural vulnerability it has spent decades avoiding. This week, Tom Rivett-Carnac, Christiana Figueres and Paul Dickinson examine what the shortage reveals: aviation's near-total dependence on fossil fuels, the structural reasons it has proved so hard to break, and whether it’s ever going to be possible to fix. They speak with Karel Bockstael and Roxanne van Rijn , former aviation insiders who co-founded Call Aviation to Action, a movement designed to reach the industry’s senior leaders and push for much-needed change. They explain why kerosene remains the only viable option for long-haul flight, how thin margins trap airlines into opposing the very regulation they need, and why this fuel shock may be the scarcity event that finally forces the model to shift. Could this crisis become aviation’s turning point? And in a world where up to 80% of people have never set foot on a plane - and 1% account for half of all aviation…
People in this episode
Hosts: Tom Rivett-Carnac, Christiana Figueres, Paul Dickinson
Guests: Karel Bockstael, Roxanne van Rijn
Topics covered
- aviation
- jet fuel crisis
- climate change
- fossil fuels
- structural vulnerability
- industry transformation
Keywords
- jet fuel
- aviation emissions
- climate crisis
- fossil fuel dependence
- aviation transformation
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Call Aviation to Action
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