Monday 28 April 2008

Fears over potential fuel shortages caused by the current industrial relations problems at the Grangemouth oil refinery highlight the need for a robust, low-carbon transport strategy backed up by strong legislation to curb climate emissions.

WWF has published a report showing that cars can remain part of a low-carbon, sustainable transport solution, but only if they are powered by electricity from the grid rather than oil. 'Plugged in: the End of the Oil' Age shows that plug-in hybrids and battery electric vehicles could provide the route towards a sustainable future for transport - by helping to reduce emissions and avert potential conflicts over dwindling oil resources.

The report and problems at Grangemouth come less than a week after the Scottish Government closed its consultation on plans for a Scottish climate change bill. Last Wednesday, WWF delivered almost 20,000 responses from the public to the consultation backing strong measures to curb emissions.

WWF Scotland Acting Director, Dr Dan Barlow, said:

"The widespread concern about fuel shortages shows just how reliant Scotland is on cars powered by polluting fossil fuels. The transport sector makes up a major part of Scotland's climate emissions and these emissions are rising. The time has now come to end our addiction to oil and to curb our climate emissions. Our report shows that, if the political will is there, it is possible to break transport's addiction to oil.

"The Climate Change Bill currently being considered by the Scottish Government provides an opportunity to help put Scotland on a path to a low-carbon future. A strong climate change bill would provide a framework to help encourage real action to reduce emissions in Scotland. To make this happen, annual emission reduction targets of at least 3% should be put into statute in line with the SNP manifesto commitment."

The 'Plugged In' report considers the future of a global transport sector that is currently 95 per cent dependent on liquid hydrocarbon fuels. It also examines the potential impacts and practicalities of electricity, versus other oil substitutes that could be used to fuel future transport systems.

"We should all be relying more on walking and biking, on buses and trains, to get to where we need to go," says James Leape, Director General of WWF International. "But cars will inevitably remain a major part of the transport equation. The cars of the future must be much more efficient - smaller, lighter, more aerodynamic - and they should, increasingly, be powered by electricity."

The report finds that vehicles running solely or partly on electricity supplied from the grid are significantly more efficient and may emit fewer greenhouse gases than many so-called "alternative fuels", even when that electricity is mostly produced using fossil fuels. However, the development of less polluting power generation and more use of renewable energies make it certain that the comparative efficiency and pollution advantages of plug-in transport solutions will improve into the future.

The report also finds that the electric vehicles can be three times more efficient than hydrogen-fuelled vehicles, and more importantly can already be achieved using existing technology and distribution infrastructure.

The report recommends the removal of hidden and overt subsidies to liquid fuel use. Vehicles should be subject to similar energy labelling and efficiency improvement requirements as other energy-consuming appliances and that liquid-based measures of fuel economy (e.g. litres per 100km or miles per gallon) and CO2 emissions targets should be replaced with technology-neutral indicators of energy consumed per kilometre.

Electric vehicles can be four times more efficient than their internal combustion counterparts. In a conventional mechanical vehicle, only 18-23 per cent of the energy contained in the fuel is converted into motion, whereas electric vehicles make use of up to 75 per cent of electricity taken from the grid.