Posted by bex — 10 November 2000 at 9:00am
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Bio-diesel: green fuel we can use today
Take some rapeseed, sunflower or soya oil, or recycle some used cooking oil, refine, mix with a diesel engine and voila! A non-toxic, biodegradable green fuel that can be used in any diesel engine.
Although the plant-based fuel is not pollution-free, it is significantly cleaner than its petro equivalent and causes just half the damage to the climate. Its widely used in the US, Germany and France, so why isn't the UK enjoying the environmental, economic and health benefits too?
Posted by bex — 10 November 2000 at 9:00am
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On the first day of the fuel protests Greenpeace volunteers met face to face with the protestors before their convoy set off for London, They explained to them the link between cheap petrol and diesel and increased flooding.
As the truckers and farmers gathered for their increasingly unpopular protest the Greenpeace activists told them that Greenpeace was completely opposed to any reductions in tax on oil based fuels. They made it clear that Gordon Brown's pledge to reduce tax on low sulphur fuels was not green but a recipe for runaway climate change since it would increase the use of oil based fuels.
A mobile team from Greenpeace will be challenging the fuel protest convoy along the entire length of their route. The volunteers - travelling in vehicles powered by green fuels such as compressed natural gas and bio-diesel [1] - will argue the case for high taxes on oil-based fuels. Greenpeace believes that Gordon Brown was wrong to reduce the cost of oil-based petrol and diesel because of the impact they have on climate change.
Bio-diesel is the name for fuel made from vegetable oils. It is made either directly from crops such as rapeseed, sunflower and soya, or by recycling cooking oil.
Bio-diesel is not zero emission, but the environmental impact of bio-diesel is much lower than that of petroleum-based diesel. The impact on global climate change of bio-diesel is half that of petro-diesel. Bio-diesel produces virtually no emissions of sulphur or hydrocarbons. Emissions of air pollutants such as carbon monoxide and particulates are also significantly reduced.
Greenpeace and the RAC Foundation today joined forces to demand that Gordon Brown create a Green Fuel Fund of £00 million a year to protect the climate and human health by promoting alternatives to oil.
A new opinion poll released at the Greenpeace Business Conference reveals that the public is willing to pay the current fuel tax so long as a proportion of it is guaranteed to be spent on the environment. A survey by NOP shows that 68% of respondents would be happier paying the current tax if some of it was spent on 'reducing pollution...by investing in public transport and developing green fuels'.
Commenting on the current controversy surrounding fuel taxation, Stephen Tindale, Greenpeace Policy Director, said: "Greenpeace agrees with the Government - it is absolutely right not to reduce fuel taxes. Unless we break our addiction to fossil fuels, extreme weather events like the floods in Mozambique will massively increase and the Arctic ice sheet will vanish in forty years. The climate crisis gives us no choice but to reduce our use of petrol and diesel - in fact prices need to rise further in future.
