Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution

A statement by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution emphasises the desirability of setting strict limits on the sulphur content of both diesel and petrol. As well as having a direct effect in reducing air pollution, this is also an essential pre-condition for the use of novel tailpipe devices that will be able to reduce pollution further.

The Royal Commission has called on the government to support a limit of not more than 50 parts per million in diesel by 2005 at the meeting of EU Environmental Ministers later this month.

The full text of the statement, which has been sent to the Deputy Prime Minister, is below.

The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution calls on the government to give its support in the EU Council of Ministers to stringent limits on the sulphur content of motor fuels.

As part of its review of developments since its 1994 report on Transport and the Environment the Royal Commission has been assessing the adequacy of measures taken or proposed to reduce emissions from vehicles that have damaging effects on health or the natural environment. The Council of Ministers and the European Parliament are at present considering the European Commission's proposals for new limits on vehicle emissions to come into effect in 2000 and provisional limits to come into effect in 2005, and proposals on the composition of motor fuels.

The Royal Commission has become persuaded that, whatever the merits of the European Commission's proposals for vehicles, its proposals for fuels are defective in not proposing sufficiently low limits for the sulphur content of petrol and diesel. Reduction in sulphur content not only has a direct and rapid effect on the amounts produced of some pollutants such as particulates, it also improves the performance and durability of devices to clean up exhausts, and is an essential precondition for the introduction of innovative clean-up devices. The limit on sulphur content of diesel has been considerably reduced in recent years. The previous government recognised the benefits of further reductions by making so called 'ultra low sulphur fuels' subject to a lower rate of fuel duty.

The European Union needs to give a clear signal so that oil companies and the motor industry will have a firm basis on which to plan their investment programmes. The crucial point is to set a firm limit of not more than 50 parts per million (ppm) on the maximum sulphur content of diesel in 2005.

It is also desirable (even allowing for the energy required to remove the sulphur at refineries) to make as much progress as possible towards 50 ppm in the limit set for 2000, and to set a stringent limit on sulphur in gasoline. Figures of 100 ppm for diesel and 30 ppm for gasoline in 2000 have been suggested by the European Parliament. The UK government should support these figures unless it can be clearly demonstrated that it is not technically feasible for the oil industry to achieve them in the time remaining before 2000.

Fuller discussion of the measures required to improve air quality will be contained in a report the Royal Commission will publish in the autumn.

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