Road pollution is a major concern for many people and councils across the country have implemented measures to try and reduce harmful emissions such as traffic calming, car sharing, congestion charging schemes and in some cases, areas prohibiting all traffic.
However, according to an East Midlands rural watchdog, a far simpler way to reduce the pollution from road vehicles could be to switch to biomethane.
CLA East Midlands, based at Sutton Bassett near Market Harborough in Leicestershire, says that while switching to the increasingly familiar Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) certainly delivers air quality benefits, it remains a fossil fuel and is only a partial answer.
The CLA claims that in other EU countries – notably Sweden – tax breaks and incentives have allowed motorists to make the next step, and realise all the benefits of gas fuel as well as saving carbon by switching to biomethane.
Tim Barnes-Clay,a Northamptonshire based motoring correspondent for the CLA’s national magazine, Land & Business, said: "Britain’s farmers can make biomethane from animal manures and crop by-products like vegetable peelings, as well as from crops such as maize. Compared to other biofuels, a car does many more miles per hectare running on biomethane - therefore making the best use of farmland.
"It is a pity that the carbon savings and air quality benefits of biomethane are only now being recognised in UK policy. We have a great deal of catching up to do with Sweden, but provided policy provides the right incentives there is no reason why biomethane should not be as widely available as LPG."
The CLA recently hosted representatives from the Department of Transport at East Midlands based Hardstaff Haulage - the first major transport company in the UK and Europe to use natural gas recovered from landfill waste for road transport.
