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.

Last week’s hot topic on the news was the Liberal Democrats change to Richmond’s Resident Parking Policy. Fuelture is currently investigating to find out if LPG cars will benefit from this change to parking policy in Richmond.

The yearly cost of residents parking is currently £200, Richmond is now basing the parking fee on a cars emissions, with the greenest cars parking for free and high emission cars paying up to £750. Also, having more than one car per household will cost an extra 50% for the second permit. Click here to find out how much your emissions would cost you to park in Richmond.

The Lib Dem’s are approaching the Cabinet next Monday to seek approval for the scheme and believe that this will be an incentive for more people to opt for greener cars and have a positive impact on reducing the effects of climate change. Watch this space for an update on what this means for LPG cars.

Seoul City, Korea is the next large city to crack down with congestion charging. Air pollution caused by car exhaust fumes is an issue for most cities in the world now and Korea have introduced an innovative driving scheme aiming to reduce the air pollution levels. Drivers will receive a 50% CC discount for taking part in the scheme known as “No Driving Day“. Motorists are expected to abandon their cars for one day each week and are rewarded with this CC discount. The scheme sounds great in theory, however as the No driving cars are only marked with a paper sticker; it is proving difficult to track whether or not motorists are sticking to the No Driving Day promise.

Alternative fuel vehicles, including Electric, hybrid, solar and fuel-cell cars are fully exempt from the CC in Korea. LPG and Diesel Oxidation Catalyst cars receive 50% discount regardless of whether they take part in the No Driving Day scheme.

More and more cities are introducing CC and other methods to encourage motorists to switch to greener driving habits. With London looking to expand the CC zone further, is it time for you to consider you motoring options?

Green car congress reported last week, since gas prices have dropped - less people are searching online for fuel-efficient cars and returned to their previous bad habits (i.e. Hummer searches have risen by nearly 15%).  It wasn’t long ago that the demand for gas-guzzling cars dropped dramatically.  Alternative fuel cars are cheaper to run, however surely the environmental impact is important to consumers too.  Gas prices have dropped, but the emissions these larger cars produce are still a lot more than cleaner fuelled cars.

The following chart was taken from Green Car Congess that shows the change in online car searches.

Low carbon vehicle owners could soon be eligible for free or discounted parking.  The GBPP scheme is being tried and tested in Greater Manchester, but is aiming to expand to other cities across the UK.  Sheffield have a similar scheme that offers free parking to dual-fuel cars, however Keith Boxer and Lelia O’Sullivan (founders of GBPP) believe that cars should qualify for the GBPP based on CO2 emissions rather than fuel types.  This would mean that single-fuelled vehicles, such as the Smart car, could also qualify for free parking.  To qualify for a permit owners must have registration certificate, MoT certificate, driver’s license and insurance details.  The GBPP is only open to private car owners, however opening the permit to fleets would encourage high mileage users to cut their CO2 emissions.
The GBPP has been labeled as an “innovative policy proposal to promote low carbon vehicles and fuels” by Fleet News Magazine.

When big wigs like BP start to seriously talk about CO2 offsetting then it definitely looks like the momentum behind carbon offsets is sustainable. Companies like Terrapass in the US and Climate Care in the UK have been pushing carbon offsetting for wee while now.

BP has just announced (see this Guardian article) that they will be encouraging UK motorists to neutralise carbon emissions from their vehicles. The plan is that BP will match payments made by customers that seek to offset their emissions, investing the funds in low or zero car bon emission projects. This seems like a great idea but are consumers likely to bite? Or is this likely to be more of a PR exercise? Only time will tell.

Just one more thought though. How much would it cost BP to offset CO2 emissions from the products that it produces today?

A recent BP report stated that the carbon dioxide produced by its products was 606 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2004 ( this excludes carbon dioxide produced from oil and gas that the company buys and sells) – see this interesting article about these numbers.

Using today’s CO2 spot prices in Europe, a tonne of CO2 cost 16.6 Euros (around $21.23).

How much would BP have to spend to offset the CO2 from its products? My calculations come up with $12.9 Billion! Now, how does that compare with the record profits generated by the company in 2005?

The company reported $16.2 billion in profits in 2005. How would the company’s shareholders feel about channeling 80% of its profits into zero or low carbon projects? Hmmmmm.

In a sense BP is right, we all have to do our bit.

Interesting thoughts here:

• Desmogblog
• Shit Sandwich

On August 5th “Stuff.co.nz” reported that the Kiwi’s have launched a dual-fuel Holden Commodore in New Zealand. The LPG Holden has come from Australia, where LPG is very common and the market is well developed. New Zealander’s are being educated on LPG, highlighting the environmental benefits along with the financial upside of running your car on LPG. Stuff reported that:

“The system is so efficient it is able to mimic the engine’s petrol injection sequence, and that means power and torque figures when on LPG are close to those when on petrol - in other words, there is no performance loss.”

The dual-fuel Holden does cost NZ$7150 more than the petrol model which is around £2,300. However, LPG is less than half the cost of petrol in New Zealand as it is in the UK, Europe, Australia and the States, so the overall cost saving is still worth the extra initial cost, especially when you consider how beautiful the New Zealand landscape is… why would anyone damage this?

Air pollution in London is the worst in the UK despite Congestion Charging and Euro Emission Standards. The Mayor of London has once again called for a step up on regulations in our countries capital and is now cracking down on lorries, HGV’s and coach drivers. Starting from Feburary 2008 lorries built after 2001 without exhaust filters stand to face fines up to £1000. This is a huge expense to the haulage industry with an estimated £390million to fit over 60,000vehicles with emission traps to meet the air quality standard. However, with air pollution causing 1,000deaths a year in London alone, the industry needs to take a step towards improving emissions and smog levels. Ken Livingstone firming believes that London can correct it’s poor air quality:

“The proposed Low Emission Zone is the most effective way of quickly reducing pollutants that are among the most harmful to human health. It will make London one of the first cities in the world to have taken such a radical step to tackle air pollution and safeguard our environment.”

Portugal and The Netherlands have adopted a eco-car registration tax scheme to encourage more people to buy low-emission car models, reports T&E, the European Federation for Transport and Environment. Cars have been divided into seven classes based on CO2 emission, fuel consumption and efficiency. Hybrid cars can give owners a €6000 discount when first bought in The Netherlands, and save the Portuguese buyers 40% off their registration tax.

Italy also rewards low CO2 emission vehicles. Italy has restrictions in place for petrol and diesel cars, that LPG cars are exempt from, allowing LPG cars to operate during the restricted ’smog periods’ and have an excise tax advantage over petrol and diesel.

T&E has also teamed up with Renault, Toyota, and the British and Dutch Government to hold a one-day press conferencee in September to develop more processes to bring more fuel-efficient cars to Europe.

The Green Car Congress reported this week that the mayor of London, Ken Livingston, is urging the congestion charging scheme to reward cars with low carbon emissions and increase charges for high carbon emission cars, encouraging more drivers to switch to LPG gas. Drivers are currently paying £8 per day to drive in the zone; the mayor would like to see this rate proportional to carbon emissions with vehicles in band G paying around £25 per day.
The congestion charging scheme is producing results with total traffic in the zone reduced by 15%-18%, congestion down by 30% and emissions, including PM10 and NOx down by 12%. LPG cars produce substantially less emissions than diesel and petrol, therefore LPG drivers that are not on the Power Shift Register will still be rewarded for their eco-friendly cars.

This is great news for LPG drivers, however not everyone is happy about these proposed changes. The Forum of Private Business (FPB) represents 25,000 UK based businesses and is currently the voice for Businesses who support less pollution but are sacrificing their livelihood in the process with the already steep congestion charge.