“The prizes of reduced congestion at peak times, better traffic management, improved air quality and lower emissions are worth striving for.” These are the words of Johm Lewis of the BVRLA (British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association) published in a recent article in Fleet News. Mr Lewis claims that the BVRLA would support road pricing “provided that its implementation is practical, fair in taxation terms and is not an adminsistrative burden on the industry”.

My view is that road pricing is a great idea, however a simple solution is to tax fuels according to their negative social impact. The more you drive, the more fuel you burn, the more tax you pay. The cleaner the fuel you use, the lower the tax burden. Longer journeys would result in less tax paid per mile (assuming motorway driving results in higher engine efficiency) and shorter journeys with more stop-and-starts result in more tax paid per mile - driving to the newsagents for the Sunday paper will not be a good idea.

Taxation can shape our behaviour. Let’s keep it simple. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

LPG scooters have already been introduced in the UK, now it is time for LPG motorbikes.  A French company, Espace Lisir, have just signed an agreement with the Vietnamese inventor of the LPG conversion kit for motorbikes to bring the hybrid fuel carburetor to Europe.

Europe is introducing this kit along with Australia, India, Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines and Africa.  The LPG motorbike with have a 30% reduction on environmental impact and up to 40% cost savings for the owners.  Espace Lisir aim to launch an advertising campaign in 2007 covering 17 different European countries along with exhibitions in France and Italy.

Professor Bui Van Ga is behind the research team that has launched the kit and is now working towards developing garbage vehicles with three-wheels that run on LPG.  Ga aims to have 100 of these vehicles in operation by next year.

Last week, Yahoo! launched a “Green Car” page on the auto website.  All cars listed have been given a green rating to give an indicator of how eco-friendly each car is.  The Toyota Prius Hybrid model comes out on top with the highest green rating.  Other cars listed include ethanol cars, Biodiesel, and natural gas, along with information and advice on station locations, mileage calculators and incentives for running a green car.

Sounds great, however Yahoo! UK has not followed in the States footsteps and has yet to launch a green car page. Hopefully the US page will be a success and encourage Yahoo! UK to follow suit.

Jay Leno, US TV personality, along with General Motors Advanced Design Studio have designed a Biodiesel super car.  Labelled the “Eco-jet”, this one-off creation has a horse-power of 650 and a Honeywell LT-101 turbine engine with 400 lb-ft torque.

There are many conflicting opinions about whether or not Leno’s car should be granted the “Eco” label.  Treehugger and Green Car Congress have some rather strong opinions posted on their Blogs.  Although the car is fuelled by Biodiesel, the power and cost are not exactly eco-conscious.

The counter argument for the “Eco-jet” - Jay Leno’s money financed the design and production of the car, GM only lent out their design studio and in terms of a turbine car – the “Eco-jet” is more efficient than others before.

The BBC has reported today that climate Change is affecting the global economy. This is the first report issued on Climate Change by an economist, Sir Nicholas Stern, rather than Environmental Scientists.

Global warming and climate change have recently been highlighted by Al Gore in his movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth‘. This report supports the stance that climate change will affect us in our lifetime. Our Global Economy has the potential to crash by 20% unless action is taken now, and the rich western countries, UK included, need to take positive action to prevent sea levels rising, water shortages, wildlife extinction and millions of people becoming refugees in their own homes (BBC).

This is all very worrying; so what is the Government urging us to do to prevent these catastrophic outcomes from happening. Well, by 2010 the Government would like to see 5% of all vehicles running on biofuels. Currently only 0.5% of all vehicles are running on LPG in the UK. Targets to reduce European emissions by 30% by 2020 have also been set. You can easily calculate your cars emissions and compare your reductions if running on LPG. Further actions will focus on establishing trade links with Brazil, Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica to ensure sustainable forestry and working on clean coal technologies in partnership with China.

The following chart was taken from the Stern Review highlighting the part that transport is playing towards emissions. Transport accounts for 14% of our Global emissions.

Sir Nicholas Stern, the author of the report, stated that “We have the time and knowledge to act but only if we act internationally, strongly and urgently “. But that wasn’t the only statement that made an impact. Most notably Mr Blair admitted that “This disaster is not set to happen in some science fiction future many years ahead, but in our lifetime,” and he continued to say that “For every £1 invested now we can save £5, or possibly more, by acting now.
We can’t wait the five years it took to negotiate Kyoto - we simply don’t have the time. We accept we have to go further (than Kyoto).”

Perhaps if there is a financial gain involved, people might be more inclined to take action now rather than later. There must be an immediate growth down-scaling if we’re expecting to have growth in the future. We can no longer wait and see, we must act here and now.
Read a summary of the 700-page report here or contact Fuelture for more information on how to cut your emissions.