LPG INDUSTRY SETS OUT CHALLENGE TO GOVERNMENT ON AIR QUALITY AND CARBON REDUCTION IMPROVEMENTS

A new document, launched today by the UK’s Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) industry, is calling upon Government to adopt a series of measures which could help improve air quality in the UK and avoid further EU fines for air pollution violations.

The launch of the Blueprint comes after reports that London’s Oxford Street already breached environmental legal limits set by the EU for the whole of 2015, in the space of just four days at the start of the year. In 2014, the UK faced a fine of £300m from the EU for failing to meet air pollution targets.

In the Blueprint, ‘A Low Carbon Alternative Fuel For Today’, the LPG industry identifies a number of key actions it believes the Government should adopt. These include the adoption of a more integrated road fuels strategy designed to restore confidence to the sector and encourage a genuine partnership between the industry, vehicle manufacturers and policy makers, which results in improved air quality and lower carbon emissions.

“A proper integrated fuels strategy, which includes LPG, is essential to help the UK tackle its growing air quality and carbon emissions problems,” comments Linda Gomersall, general manager, Autogas Limited. “This new document is a result of extensive consultation and sets out some very clear, yet incredibly simple ways in which Government could help the industry address these critical environmental and health issues.”

Measures recommended in the industry’s vision include replacing individual fuel strategies with an integrated fuels strategy for all fuels; introducing incentive schemes to remove the most polluting cars from the road (potentially through conversion to LPG autogas); providing wider support for local authorities to convert their fleets to less polluting fuel types; reviewing wider incentives for road fuels through working with local authorities and the Mayor of London; ensuring greater consultation with government departments; and giving air pollution the same level of priority as tackling climate change.

Widely available for use in vehicles in the UK since 2000, currently around 150,000 drivers benefit from driving on LPG auotgas which is available at more than 1,400 refuelling sites across the UK.

Vehicles powered by LPG autogas are much less harmful to the environment, emitting significantly fewer harmful pollutants such as CO₂, NOx and particulate matter than petrol or diesel models.

Thanks to its better environmental performance, LPG autogas attracts a lower fuel duty than petrol or diesel meaning that it currently retails for around 61.6 pence per litre compared with 107.6 per litre for unleaded petrol. Consequently, another attraction of autogas is that users can typically reduce their fuel bills by up to 40 per cent.

“LPG autogas is an established and proven solution in helping address environmental and health issues and we look forward to working even more closely with Government to encourage its greater take-up by UK motorists,” concludes Gomersall.