| The one-day environmental workshop,
held in conjunction with The United Nations Environmental Programme’s
Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles (PCFV), focused on
the role of the Latin American automobile clubs in promoting
cleaner fuels and vehicles in their region. The Latin American
region is facing a growth in vehicle emissions as a result
of expanding vehicle ownership, growing urbanisation and increased
traffic congestion.
Keynote speakers included Ivan Fonseca e Silva, president
of the Automobile Association of Brazil and former President
of Ford Brazil, and Dr Ozires Silva, an aeronautical engineer
who gained national recognition as President of Brazil’s
largest oil company Petrobas.
Elisa Dumitrescu, Associate Programme Officer from the Urban
Environment Unit of UNEP, introduced the achievements of
the PCFV, which has worked since 2002 to phase out leaded
fuel in those countries that still use it, and has increasingly
turned its attention to promoting lower sulphur content in
fuel.
A key topic of discussion was the use of alcohol fuel in
Brazil, Latin America’s largest vehicle producer. Alcohol
fuel, which was introduced by the government in the 1970s
in the face of an oil crisis, became very popular on the
Brazilian automobile market in the 1980s. Alcohol-powered
cars represented more than 90 per cent of car manufacturing
within a few years until alcohol shortages and falling oil
prices made the sales of alcohol-powered cars plummet by
the end of the decade.
The recent introduction of flexible fuel vehicles, vehicles
that run on either gasoline, 100 per cent alcohol or a mix
of the two has led to a revival in this renewable energy
technology. Reducing gasoline consumption and increasing
alcohol use lead to lower carbon dioxide emissions, a greenhouse
gas that contributes to global warming.
Rita Cuypers of the FIA Foundation presented the role that
automobile clubs can play in the development and promotion
of cleaner fuels and vehicles. For instance, the clubs can
provide technical advice to their members and the motoring
public at large about the transition from leaded to unleaded
fuel and the implications of moving to lower sulphur fuel.
They should also play an advocacy role in promoting the
benefits of cleaner fuels and technologies to the public
and government. After all, motoring organisations have a
responsibility to ensure that car use is as clean and sustainable
as possible for future generations.
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