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.

The Australian Government has spent more than $2.6million encouraging Aussie’s to convert to LPG. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this figure is the fact that no advertising expenditure has gone on T.V. ads; LPG promotions have been purely print and radio driven.

Fuelture has kept an active watch on the Australian LPG market since the introduction of the $2,000 subsidy in August this year. With the demand for LPG conversions resulting in a two month waiting list, and over 10,000 enquiries into LPG conversions. Perhaps the large advertising budget can be justified by the success of the scheme.

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?

The East Bolton Local Link is piloting a new LPG public transport system. The LPG Mercedes-Benz Sprinter Minibus ferries people between the Royal Bolton Hospital and local areas. Nigal Palmer, Divisional Manager for Facilities at the the hospital is extremely pleased with the move towards a greener transport service for patients, visitors and hospital staff:

I have already mentioned in last weeks Blog the growing demand for LPG Conversions in Australia. The Australian Government warn people to stay away from unsafe LPG Conversions. In order to clear the backlog of cars waiting to be converted to LPG the Government are introducing a A$1.2million skills package to train more engineers in LPG Conversions. All I can say is Australia is certainly leading the way with LPG and we should be following more closely in their footsteps!

Fuelture constantly stresses the importance of quality when opting to have your car converted to LPG.  And we are not alone; Powertrain, Calor, Birmingham Trading Standards, MG Rover Group, LP Gas Association and the Energy Saving Trust are warning the public about the dangers of getting an unapproved LPG Conversion.

Recent research unveiled that 19 out of 20 cars converted by an unapproved garage proved to be potentially dangerous.  The industry is looking to introduce a licensing scheme in addition to the LPGA list of approved installers.  MP, Melanie Johnson commented:

Following the LPG Conversion subsidy, over 10,000 Aussie’s have called the LPG hotline number to make enquiries and 87% of the callers are desperate to convert - Sydney Daily Telegraph.

The surge in demand has resulted in the staff handling the calls growing from 4 to 90 people and the demand for LPG cars from the manufacturer has also increase by 10,000 vehicles. The waiting list for having an LPG Conversion is around 2 months, encouraging more mechanics to become qualified in LPG Conversions.

Raising the profile of LPG even more in Australian… Ford set a challenge of completing a lap of the country in an LPG car on a fuel budget of $1000. The 14,000km trip was completed with a pocket full of change left over!

Subaru have announced that the Tribeca will now be available as an LPG Car. The German Chairman, Jens Becker, boasted that “significant savings could be achieved without a loss to performance, comfort and safety.” The LPG Subaru will be launched in Europe later this year.

The press are reporting that there has been a drop in demand for SUV’s and other gas guzzling cars; perhaps Subaru is making the right move to improve the emission standard of these cars.

Sources: RawStory

The Scotsman reported today that there has been a recent increase of interest in LPG Conversions for Cars. Jim Currie reported that

“Word is spreading of a green solution to running a car that has no apparent snags.”

Fuelture’s own, Gbenga Kogbe (Managing Director) gave a comment to the Scotsman stating that,

“We can fit an LPG conversion to the average family saloon for around £1,900 adn a typical 4×4 for £2,300…This is inclusive of VAT and we would expect to have the vehicle in our workshop for four to five days.“

The article covered cost, performance, availabilty, approved converters and environmental issues. The article has been posted on our online magazine should you wish to read more.