ethanol fuel key to tackling climate change

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,20767281-29277,00.html?from=public_rss

AUSTRALIA would promote ethanol-blended fuel as a key part of the global response to climate change at the APEC meeting in Hanoi this week, Deputy Prime Minister Mark Vaile said today.

The Government was keen to ensure biofuels had a role in reducing the reliance on conventional fuels, Mr Vaile said.

"Part of the discussion at APEC in Vietnam over this weekend amongst leaders will be energy security," Mr Vaile said.

"And as a component of that, the role that renewables and biofuels can play in energy security and particularly as part of the global move to curtail greenhouse gas emissions."

Mr Vaile said the Government did not expect to meet any resistance to the use of biofuels at APEC, as the major international economies had already started to use them.

Ahead of the APEC summit in Sydney next year, energy ministers from member countries would meet in Darwin in May 2007 to discuss biofuels.

Commonwealth cars ferrying APEC leaders during their Australian stay would all use ethanol-blended fuel whenever available, he said.

The move to ethanol-blended fuel in Australia was starting to apace, with the number of sites selling it up from 70 last June to 400.

But Mr Vaile said the oil distribution industry needed to do more if the Government was to reach its target of at least 350 million litres of biofuel production by 2010.

"We'd like to see the oil distribution companies in Australia do a little bit more, a little bit faster," Mr Vaile said.

But Government would not use legislation to prod the industry into swifter action, he said.

Switching to ethanol-blended fuel was something practical Australians could contribute to tackling climate change, he said.

Earlier today, Treasurer Peter Costello said while Australia must reduce its reliance on oil, the Government is unlikely to make ethanol blend fuels compulsory.

NSW Nationals leader Andrew Stoner said the states should legislate for the use of biofuels to erduce dangerous pollution.

"We know that a 10 per cent blend of ethanol fuel reduces cancer-causing particulates by 30 per cent," Mr Stoner said.

"We also know there are more people who die from vehicle-related pollution in Sydney than are killed on our roads."