There seems to be common agreement that reducing greenhouse gas emissions drastically makes sense. Making it happen is another matter. Some analysts hope that dwindling oil supplies coupled with market forces will bring about a de facto reduction, but that would be inequitable and incompatible with sustainable development principles.

This article considers the scope for pro‐actively reducing emissions in the Welsh road transport sector, the potential contribution of biodiesel manufactured from recycled vegetable oil, and some of the economic impacts of public policy on the industry and wider society in Wales.

In Wales, transport accounted for 6.7 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2005 (most recent figures, excluding military, off‐shore industry, aviation and shipping) representing an estimated 16% of total emissions.

Except for a slight dip in 2001, road transport emissions in Wales have increased year on year since 1990. If this trend continues unchecked, the consequences will be costly. For example, the estimated cost of flood damage in Wales is projected to increase from £70million to £1.4billion by 2080.

Achieving the target of 60% reduction in Wales CO2 emissions by 2050 would require us to make some drastic changes to our lifestyles and culture, not least our travel habits. The first step is to reduce the number of car journeys we make. A study by Bangor University estimates that to meet this target we would need to make 28% fewer car journeys.

Initiatives to help us achieve this target include Sustrans TravelSmart project to get people out of their cars and using alternative means of transport and the Institute of Civil Engineers call for increased investment in public transport, including a north‐south Wales rail link.

In spite of the widely publicised benefits of walking, funding to support walking initiatives in Wales is miniscule.

While many hope for a technological fix, solutions like a hydrogen revolution or a wholesale shift to hybrid vehicles run partly on renewable electricity seem a long way off. Besides, this alone would not bring about sufficient CO2 savings.
Alternative initiatives aimed at reducing emissions from remaining car journeys include:

• WWF's 'One Planet' Transport policy, which envisages a future where the transport sector could reduce its total ecological footprint by up to 20%, through a range of methods including intelligent local traffic management.

• Act On CO2's car fuel efficiency and emissions ranking scheme to help us to buy the least polluting vehicles.

• Driving Standards Agency's 'Drive Smarter' campaign to improve the fuel efficiency of the way we drive our cars.

• A range of car sharing schemes established across Wales.

It's difficult to estimate whether the combined impact of all these initiatives - most of which rely on voluntary effort - would come close to achieving the required reductions. I suspect they would fall considerably short of the mark. Ultimately we need to move away from non‐renewable fuels and this is where biofuels come in.

Friends of the Earth, England, Wales and Northern Ireland "remain sceptical about the potential contribution that biofuels could make." They cite a study by Wetlands International released in December 2006, which revealed that palm oil sourced from an area where a peat forest has been destroyed and burned can lead to emissions which are ten times greater per tonne of palm oil compared to a tonne of mineral oil.

Coupled with issues of biodiversity loss and food security, this makes fuel crops a bad bet. There is simply not enough agricultural land in the world to replace fossil fuels with purpose-grown biofuels.

Instead we should be focussing on producing fuel only from recycled oil, as we do here at Sundance. We encourage people to run their vehicles on 100% recycled biodiesel, although we cannot necessarily guarantee to compete on price with fossil fuel.

Perhaps because there has been so much emphasis on the cost savings linked to energy efficiency, there seems to be a public perception that biodiesel should be cheaper than fossil fuel. But the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation Programme which, from April 2008, places a duty on fuel suppliers to ensure that a certain percentage of their aggregate sales is made up of biofuels, has had the effect of increasing demand for used vegetable oil, the feedstock of the recycled biodiesel industry.

In itself this is a good thing, if it helps to divert this potential pollutant away from water courses and landfill sites. However, small manufacturers like us (we are a workers co‐operative and not‐for‐profit social enterprise) are obliged to compete with corporate enterprises exporting used cooking oil to Germany for processing - thereby wiping out the carbon‐neutral credentials of the product.

We are obliged to cover rising costs by passing on increases to our customers. Hence our prices can sometimes be higher than the fossil forecourts.

We are lucky to have a loyal membership base of Friends, like‐minded people committed to using only pure 'liquid solar energy', as we like to call it, safe in the knowledge that it is 95% carbon neutral. But saving the planet needs to be more than a lifestyle choice for a few rich hippies.

If Wales is to fulfil its constitutional commitment to sustainable development we need a transport policy which takes into account that we are not an oil producing nation, except in that we eat a lot of chips.

Philippa Jones of the University of Swansea reckons that if all the cooking oil in Carmarthenshire was collected via civic amenity sites, it would be enough to keep our scaled up production facility operating at full capacity. A similar study is needed to ascertain the potential for recycling every drop of cooking oil in the country and what that might take.

George Monbiot has said that "the people slithering about in vats of filth (that's us, folks) turning old chip fat into a motor fuel are doing a service to society". What can society do to value our contribution? Perhaps people could start by recognising that even if we 'max out' i.e. collect and recycle every possible drop of used cooking oil, we are unlikely to produce enough biodiesel even to fuel a national fleet of emergency services.

So if you want to do your bit to save the planet, this is what you must do: if you cannot walk - cycle or catch the bus; if you must use private transport (preferably a shared car) and if your vehicle is not electric, LPG or even a hybrid; then at least run it on recycled biofuel.

Try to improve the efficiency of your vehicle and the distance travelled until you use one three-hundred-and-eightieth the amount of fuel you use at present. In fact, try not to use any at all - leave it for the emergency services.

Written by Rachel Auckland from Sundance Renewables as part of a series of essays published on the Sustain Wales website in November 2009.

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