The following has been summarised from the presentation given to the Biodiesel Forum 2005 by Cecilia Tietze, Campaign Manager of Clean Fuels for Clean up Australia .

Climate Change

The science shows that climate change is real. In these graphs from the CSIRO, the effects of climate change are obvious. In the first graph, the last 420,000 years shows natural fluctuations in temperature at the same time as CO2. It is clear that CO2 rises are connected to temperature rises. On the far right edge of the graph, both measurements jump significantly as we reach the present day, though they are hard to see in the scale of this graph.

Source - CSIRO

The second graph shows only the last 1000 years, so the recent effects can more easily be seen, as mankind has been adding more CO2 to the atmosphere since the industrial revolution, and even more now since petroleum emissions.

Source - CSIRO

Recently, it is becoming clearer that industry and government are beginning to accept this too. Here are some recent quotes as an example:

• "There is now broad acceptance across industry that climate change is real, that human actions are a part of the problem and we need to do something about it”
  (Preston Chiaro, Rio Tinto chief executive energy, 2005)
• "Human induced climate change is one of the major challenges confronting the world this century” 
  (John Howard, 2004)

Climate Change Initiative Targets Road Transport

Clean Up Australia will be running a new Clean Fuels Australia campaign. Based on their previous successes, they have decided to launch this campaign under their Climate Change Initiative.

The campaign is structured into 3 parts:

1. Raising industry awareness of the clean fuels campaign.
2. Involve fleet managers, who represent 50% of all new vehicle registrations each year. They need to be engaged and Ian Kiernan will put out a call for action to them, encouraging them to think differently and take the lead. Case studies and information packs will be used to influence some of the country’s major fleets to consider purchasing biofuels for their fleets, or to use an increased number of hybrid or flexi fuel cars in their fleets.
3. Involve the general public. They need to be better informed, so they are empowered to make choices. This audience is much larger so some time will need to be spent educating them in an unbiased fashion about the fuel alternatives that are available  (biodiesel, ethanol, CNG & LPG), as well as simple things that they can do when driving to reduce their impact on the environment.

The role of Biodiesel

Biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel have social and environmental benefits, but it is strongly felt that the production of biofuels needs to be carefully monitored. From tillage of raw materials through to combustion, all the environmental impacts including the complete suite of energy inputs must be considered in order to calculate the relative greenhouse gas output of each fuel.

Clean Up Australia believes in monitoring manufacturers to ensure they maintain stringent production standards, especially in the blending of biofuels with traditional petrol and diesel. Clean Up’s position is that blending must only be done at the refinery for commercially used fuels.

In order to boost consumer confidence Clean Up Australia need to reinforce the message with case studies and information about supply. Clean Up Australia aim to be the mediator between biofuel suppliers and potential fleet customers, and will support an emerging market.