Yes? Well, that's good because you have the opportunity to help stope quite a few oil rigs... read on...
Right now in Brussels, our politicians and civil servants are haggling over the future of oil consumption. We know the vast majority of oil is used in transport, and that's why the forthcoming European decisions on emissions targets for vans and cars are so important to our Go Beyond Oil campaign.
However, the word is that our Transport Secretary, Philip Hammond, is planning to weaken the UK's position in these negotiations. The current position on vans - as agreed by the last government - would reduce our future oil consumption in the UK by 3.6 million barrels per year (see the 'science bit' below).That a major reduction and Hammond can not be allowed to threaten it, especially as he is a minister in a government that brands itself the "greenest ever".
So, go here to remind him to stick to the UK's strong position.
The only reason for Hammond to back-track is because of pressure from big car manufacturers. We've heard some, like Toyota, are leaning on our politicians to make them cave in to their demands.
It's ridiculous. A strong emissions target for vans is a win-win-win situation. It's good for the climate, it's good for the environment and it's good for business: average van users would save hundreds of pounds a year on reduced fuel costs.
But Hammond is considering ignoring all this in a bid to please these big car manufacturers who are lobbying hard because they know that next year is the bigger brother of the vans legislation: cars. Toyota and others know that if they can get European politicians to slide over the vans battle, they can push the cars targets back even further next year.So, don't forget to write to Hammond.
As promised, the science bit:
The government has forecast that if the EU legislation set a target for the average emissions from Light Goods Vehicles (vans) of 175g CO2 per km by 2016 and 135g CO2 per km by 2020, this would deliver annual CO2 savings of around 1.5MtCO2 in the UK. We have assumed that diesel creates 2.64kg of CO2 per litre burned, so burning around 380 litres of diesel creates 1 tCO2. If we assume there are the equivalent of 160 litres per barrel, then 1 tCO2 = 2.38 barrels. So 1.5 MtCO2 = approximately the equivalent of 3.6 million barrels.
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