CLEAN UP AFTER YOURSELF

It’s a LOT better to “greenwash” global warming than to deny it or pretend the hydrogen fantasy is the best answer!

BP revs up for carbon neutral motoring
August 23, 2006 (UK Guardian)
- These are the best of times and the worst of times for BP. Profits have never been higher…At the same time, the company with a green and yellow logo to emphasise its environmentally-friendly credentials is under fire for its record in Alaska…

- Given that background, it was inevitable that when BP launched its "targetneutral" initiative to encourage motorists to "neutralise" carbon dioxide (C02) emissions from their vehicles, quite a few journalists voiced their scepticism…
- Too often companies are criticised for not being proactive on environmental issues, yet when they try something, the idea is dismissed as "greenwash"; a gimmick to enhance their green credentials...The starting point for targetneutral is that road transport accounts for 22% of Britain's C02 emissions. BP argues that while it is working on biofuels and other forms of alternative energy to petrol, those schemes lie in the future and that action to mitigate CO2 emissions can be taken here and now…drivers can go to a website to calculate the cost of the annual C02 reduction needed to make their car C02 neutral. An average car, driven 10,000 miles a year, generates about four tonnes of C02. To neutralise that amount, BP says, will cost around £20 a year. It sounds like a piffling price to do your bit to save the planet. BP says a huge amount of C02 could be neutralised if all 40 million drivers in the UK signed up to targetneutral…
- But how does all that C02 get neutralised? The money motorists pay towards targetneutral, which will be matched by BP when motorists register and use their Nectar card at a BP forecourt, will go towards five renewable energy projects in the developing world. These projects are designed to "offset" or "cancel" out a driver's emissions…
- There is one big problem, though. Will motorists who are already grumbling about having to pay £1 a litre in some parts of the country be ready to go the extra mile -or in this case another £20 - for such a scheme?