CO2

[sparkes]

It appears in the news that cheap flights will have to stop in order for the UK to reach its self imposed CO2 levels. Not a bad thing at all

BUT....

Can we expect a supstancial rise in the number of vans on the road and even more of a problem getting a pitch in high season? If so, is this good for us or bad?

Discuss

PS, needed to post somthing as it quiet in here since Lolly broke her PC

 

[Val & Frank]

Glad we sold our apartment in Spain, and bought a new van before the rush !!!!. It was always going to happen,when the Goverment needed a new revenue earner. What's not taxed Aircraft Fuel ummmmm it answers it's self.

Val & Frank

 

[AnnM1]

I doubt hat all that many will give up their holiday in the sun!!! My daughter always says it is much cheaper to go abroad and the guaranteed weather is a bonus.

After forking out for a caravan it isn't all that cheap to stay 'home'.

 

[CliveV]

Whilst I agree that aviation causes more polution than any other single cause and if this latest study is correct, in a few years aviation will account for more CO2 production than all the vehicles, central heating systems and industry put together - do we really think that a unilateral tax on aviation fuel by the UK will be easily applied?

If the UK applies a fuel tax on aviation fuel then aircraft will simply refuel somewhere else.

During the fuel crisis a few years back - I got used to seeing lorries with extra tanks parked up in laybys arround Upton and Poole dispencing diesel to other lorries and vans.

Only if all countries apply the tax will it work, and with so much at stake in the aviation industry and travel industry, I am not sure it will happen.

But not to worry - most politicans have got the solution!!!!

Increase road tax!

 

[Viking1]

I all for going more green but it seem like the government are not do much to help thing on the way.

It seem there are plenty of way out there cut down the CO2 that we put in to the air but a lot of them seem to have been put on hulled as a excuse so the government and the fuel people can make money out of use by put more taxes on fuel that give of CO2.

If you look at how long they now that a lot of diesel engines can run on used cooking oils.

The government cud pushes this one. So buy the end of nest year we cud use cooking oil and that would cut down CO2 laves be put the air a lot.

Mark

 

[rob_jax]

Hi Mark,

The bio-diesel initiative from the EU means that all EU countries will be using a blend of 5% bio-diesel (minimum) in petroleum diesel in 2007

The bio-diesel is sourced from crops (like rape seed), used oil, and other sources (Germany has one test plant producing diesel from wood chips - in a so-called GTL (gas to liquid) refinery).

There isn't enough farming land to grow enough rape seed to turn into bio-diesel for everyone - but around 10% to 20% is sustainable.

Just back from Rotterdam and Amsterdam (visiting a CTL test refinery - originally this meant coal to liquid - but I prefer the term cr*p to liquid).

GTL and CTL refineries will be important in the future, because although the rape seeds can be processed into oil - and then into bio-diesel - around 90% or more of the plant is unused - and the stalks and leaves could then also be converted into diesel.

And it takes 4 or 5 years to build a refinery...

Robert

 

[Guest]

Just a small point. As far as I am aware airplanes run on kerosene/paraffin, not diesel, so bio-diesel will have no effect on that industry. The aircraft industry itself has come up with ideas (wheezes??) such as towing aircraft to the runway instead of them sitting for long periods with engines running. They also suggest better fuel efficient engines. Curiously the airline pushing this idea is the one which has just bought...fuel efficient engines, so would like to see the others penalised. I wonder why? The other point that seems to have come up is the increase in air travel is due to people taking more flights themselves, not an increase an new passengers. So those with the pads in France etc are partly to blame.

Growing rape seed is one answer, but it too has problems with causing health related issues, especially if you live beside the fields.

There are answers, but nobody likes them.

 

[CliveV]

As well as the expected problem of some countries trashing unique habitats so that Oil Seed Rape can be grown for valuable $'s.

Does any one else see the irony of the plants name and the potential devastation it could bring about because we in the EU have to achieve a target of using the stuff whilst we do not have the land mass ouselves to produce it?

And before anyone says "Are but we only plan to have a 20% mix!"

Just watch the "poorer nations" jump on the band wagon of growing the stuff to sell it cheaper than the EU can produce it.

Still no matter - the EU has a "wine lake" - why not a "Rape seed oil lake"

 

[MONKEY1]

Having worked 6 years for an Airline there is a different view to everything - for a start the same predictions were being made in the early nineties - guess what engine and plane makers made them more economical and airlines brought them.

When Ryan Air started as a low cost airline their average seat was about 70 Euro's it's now less than half that and it's flying more people in Cleaner newer planes .

Air travel is a moral and economic thing it's discretionary unlike the use of a car for instance. Fuel isn't completely tax free - who ever told you that is just wrong. Secondly The Idea of "Tankering" - uplifting more fuel than necessary is widely done as it helps shorten turn round times and isn't done purely on where is cheap !!

Monkeys Husband