Note: The following reported item describes events that have not yet taken place and with the possibility that they may never actually occur.
Carbon Honesty
Agreement has been reached between the UK government and oil companies to include a statement of ‘carbon burden’ associated with purchases of fuel at petrol stations. Thus in addition to normal receipt details, values will be provided of likely mass of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by burning of the fossil fuel. Thus for a typical purchase of 30 litres of diesel fuel, this will be equivalent to around 79.0 kg of carbon dioxide and for E10 petrol 69.0 kg.
A spokesperson for an unnamed oil company said in a prepared statement ‘This is part of a process of corporate responsibility to adequately inform our customers of the climate impact of their actions. We also provide information to our customers regarding ways in which they can drive ‘carbon neutral’ by offsetting their fossil fuel purchases through validated schemes. The trend, however, is for the support of schemes which have the net effect of removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in order to break the current cycle of relentless increasing of atmospheric carbon dioxide burdens. These we will actively encourage. Affordable energy will increasingly be the key focus of the economy and we will endeavour to encourage all sustainable means to achieve this goal.’
