Ministers from 9 Member States will convene in Brussels for an air quality ministerial summit on Tuesday, 30 January, invited by the EU Commissioner for Environment Karmenu Vella. The European LPG Association considers this meeting to be a unique opportunity for Member States to develop measures to address long standing breach of European emission standards.
The benefits or LPG have for long been demonstrated. In off-grid areas in particular, the cleaner fuel of choice is LPG. Because it’s stored and transported as a liquid, it suits those distributed, small-scale applications. Because it burns like a gas, its particle (PM) emissions are negligible, and Nitrogen Oxide (NOx) and ozone-precursors can be controlled to low levels.
In heating, LPG’s particles and ozone-precursor emissions are lower than heating oil’s and wood’s (biomass). A study by the Italian research institute INNOVHUB showed that oil boilers generate more than twice the PM emissions of a similar LPG boiler and that biomass appliances’ PM emissions can be 600 times higher than LPG ones. In transport, road vehicles running on LPG produce far fewer of the harmful emissions associated with traditional fuels that contribute to health and environmental problems.
In the run up of the meeting of January 30th, Samuel Maubanc, General Manager of the AEGPL urges:
“The time has come for European leaders to seriously look at LPG as a cost-effective and readily available solution to fight air pollution and improve air quality in Europe.”
The European LPG Association will continue working closely with its national member associations, making the case for LPG both at national and at European level.
