GREEN groups welcomed news yesterday of EU moves to rule tar sands as more polluting than conventional transport fuels, which they said could ban the controversial oil from Europe.
Under the Fuel Quality Directive, the EU has committed to reducing the emissions from the production of transport fuel used in Europe by 6% by 2020.
Environmental groups said the commission’s proposal to treat tarsand extraction as significantly more polluting than conventional oil production would effectively ban its use in Europe if the bloc is to meet the directive’s target.
Research has shown that the unconventional oil mined from the forests of Alberta, Canada, which requires extra energy to extract and upgrade the bitumen into a usable fuel, produces 23% more greenhouse gas than petrol over its life cycle.
Campaigners who oppose the extraction of tar sands because of their effect on the climate and the Albertan forests welcomed the Commission’s proposal, which now goes to member states for approval.
Welcoming the move, Paul Morozzo, of Greenpeace UK said: “The key question now is what will the UK Government do? Will it be, as David Cameron once claimed, the greenest government ever and support the ban or will the government adopt the George Osborne approach . . . where carbon emissions and the destruction of the environment seems to be a price worth paying.”